Educational CyberPlayGround ®

K12 Education is a For Profit Business

FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FEEDS THE BUSINESS OF K12 EDUCATION

The U.S spends over $600 billion a year on public schools.

The federal government is a much larger financial contributor to colleges and universities than to K-12 schools.

FOR PROFIT COLLEGES STEAL THE TAX MONEY FROM US

For nearly 200 for-profit colleges, taxpayers pay the bills. The proprietary schools - which also include dozens of storefront beauty, computer and culinary operations - would have violated an anti-profiteering law were it not for a loophole that excludes the GI Bill and tuition assistance to active duty military.

2018 DeVos restored federal recognition to the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools
ThIS affect millions of students and the future of the for-profit college industry

Obama administration withdrew recognition from ACICS in 2016. ACICS and other college accreditors require federal recognition in order to operate. WHICH WILL ALLOW PREDATORY COLLEGES LIKE TRUMP UNIVERSITY TO CONTINUE GETTING MONEY.
Without an accreditor's stamp of approval, colleges can't access that money, which is crucial to the financial stability of many colleges, particularly those in the for-profit sector.
College accreditors like ACICS serve as gatekeepers to billions of dollars of federal financial aid that flow to colleges, particularly those in the for-profit sector. A controversial for-profit college watchdog terminated by the Obama administration officially has the authority to oversee schools once again, thanks to a decision issued Wednesday by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. DeVos restored federal recognition to the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) Wednesday, ending roughly two years of limbo for the organization, which began after the Obama administration withdrew recognition from ACICS in 2016. ACICS and other college accreditors require federal recognition in order to operate.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/axed-by-obama-administration-devos-reinstates-controversial-for-profit-college-watchdog-2018-11-21

Government report: Navient steered borrowers towards costly repayment plans

STRIKE DEBT

The Rolling Jubilee We buy debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, we abolish it. We cannot buy specific individuals' debt — instead, we help liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. All proceeds go directly to buying and canceling people's debt. A bailout of the people by the people Rolling Jubilee is a Strike Debt project that buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolishes it. Together we can liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal.

All told, 193 for-profit colleges benefitted from the loophole. Their take: $7.9 billion.

THE DEPT. OF ED SHOULD GO TO JAIL 133 for-profit colleges received a near complete subsidy in 2012.

Taxpayers (like you) provided near-complete subsidies to 21 for-profit colleges that have shuttered since 2014.

GI Bill funds flow to for-profit colleges that fail state aid standards Jun 28, 2014
Taxpayers provided nearly complete subsidies to 21 for-profit colleges that have shut their doors since 2014, closures that left students in the lurch, frequently in deep debt and without transferable credits. Collectively, these schools received $1.4 billion.
Taxpayers paid $9.5 billion to these for-profit colleges in 2012, including $8.8 billion from Pell Grants, Stafford Loans and other financial aid programs administered by the Department of Education; $90 million from military tuition assistance; and $636 million from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Overall, these schools received 92.5 percent of their revenue from taxpayers.
The University of Phoenix received $3 billion in government cash during the 2013-2014 school year - enough to pay tuition for all 210,000 undergraduates in the University of California system with cash to spare to offer a free ride to the incoming class at Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale. Nearly all - 96 percent - of the University of Phoenix's revenue came from taxpayers. The school's overall graduation rate is under 15 percent!!!!!!

HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?

Thanks to Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., the chairman of the House Committee on the Education and the Workforce. Phoenix's parent company is Kline's largest campaign contributor - he received $57,000 from the Apollo Education Group, more than any other member of Congress.
90/10 rule. It bans for-profit schools from receiving government funding if they draw more than 90 percent of their revenue from federal student aid programs. Veterans groups and consumer advocates have long argued that the loophole encourages predatory institutions to target veterans, and have argued it be closed.

 

Less than 9% of that $600 billion a year on public schools.600 Billion from the federal government, is almost exclusively dedicated to specific populations of children, most notably students with disabilities and students in low-income communities. Roughly half of all nonfederal education funding comes from local property taxes raised by over 13,000 local school districts.

1/2416 The Fed paid $3.7 billion to charter schools that never opened. No way to get that $ back.

2016 FACT SHEET
Budget provides $69.4 billion in discretionary funding and $139.7 billion in new mandatory funding over the next 10 years for the U.S. Department of Education. $350 million for Charter School Grants, an increase of $17 million over the 2016 enacted level, and $115 million for Magnet Schools Assistance, an increase of $18 million over the 2016 enacted level, to support the Department's ongoing commitment to the expansion of high-quality schools and public school choice options. $11.9 billion for Grants to States under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA Part B) to support special education and related services and help States and LEAs improve results for children with disabilities.

PRIVITIZE U.S. K-12

FOR PROFIT WANTS THIS MONEY

 

K-12 School Reform Accountabilty
Trump proposed a $20 billion federal voucher program on the campaign trail, and has likened the public school system to a monopoly business that needs to be broken up. But Trump Annoints republican anti-public education activist @BetsyDeVos Secretary of Education focused strong advocate of vouchers and making charter schools as private as possible. The large majority of Michigan charters are run by for-profit companies, in contrast with most states. The DeVos family donated more than $1 million to Republican lawmakers 2016 during a successful effort to oppose new oversight of charters.
@CoryBooker was on the board of Betsy DeVos's anti-union, pro-charter, pro-voucher Koch/Walton/Olin-funded org PDF

 

The “Outsized Influence” of lobbyists for the virtual charter industry.

“I can't imagine a worse pick”: Critics slams Donald Trump's choice Betsy DeVo for secretary of education who wants to destroy public schools. If she pursues that agenda she is likely to fail. Charter schools are public schools, open to all, accountable in varying degrees to public authorities, and usually run by nonprofit organizations. Vouchers, by contrast, allow students to attend any school, public or private, including those run by religious organizations and for-profit companies. Mr. Trump, who proposed a $20 billion federal voucher program on the campaign trail, and has likened the public school system to a monopoly business that needs to be broken up. s

Steven Singer: Top Ten Reasons School Choice is No Choice instead What school choice actually is.
In reality, it's just a scam to make private schools cheaper for rich people, further erode the public school system and allow for-profit corporations to gobble up education dollars meant to help children succeed.

GOV. RICK SNYDER + DEVO

HOME STATE MICHIGAN

Ms. Devos deregulated school choice philosophy has not been considered a resounding success. In her home state, Detroit's laissez-faire choice policies have led to a wild west of cutthroat competition and poor academic results.

2016 Attorneys for Gov. Rick Snyder and state education officials say no fundamental right to literacy exists for Detroit school children who are suing the state over the quality of their education. “But as important as literacy may be, the United States Supreme Court has unambiguously rejected the claim that public education is a fundamental right under the Constitution. Literacy is a component or particular outcome of education, not a right granted to individuals by the Constitution,” Haynes says.
IF THIS STATEMENT IS TRUE then why bot abolish the Dept. of Education for they have no purpose and stop paying taxes.

K12 Inc., which also has other education-related businesses, brought in nearly $873 million in revenue last fiscal year, (2015) over 80 percent of which came from schools it managed, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Connections Education, another major player, is owned by Pearson, an international education company that posted $5.5 billion in sales last fiscal year. (Pearson officials would not disclose how much revenue is generated by Connections.) It's a business model fueled largely by public dollars. It will ruin public schools.

State says literacy not a right in Detroit - Attorneys for Gov. Rick Snyder say no fundamental right to literacy exists for Detroit schoolchildren who are suing the state over the quality of their education. http://detne.ws/2gbRWKL

The virtual or online charter industry is a sham and a fraud. Readers of this blog have read many articles and research studies demonstrating that these “schools” survive by the power of their lobbying and campaign contributions, not because they have any educational value. Studies, even by charter-friendly organizations like CREDO of Stanford, have repeatedly demonstrated that virtual charters have high dropout rates, low test scores, and low graduation rates. This doesn't seem to bother state officials because…well, lobbying and campaign contributions.

WHAT MADOFF, MILKEN, K12.COM, BENNETT, NEIL BUSH HAVE IN COMMON

K12 Inc., the largest online, for-profit Educational Management Organization in the U.S., is a good example of what the Center for Media and Democracy calls "America's Highest Paid Government Workers" -- that is, the CEOs of corporations that make billions by taking control of public services. While over 86 percent of K12's profits came from taxpayers, and while the of K12's eight executives went from $10 million to over $21 million in one year, only 27.7 percent of K12 Inc. online schools in 2010-2011, compared to 52 percent of public schools.

5/6/14 .S. v. Education Management LLC, 210 Sixth Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15222 United States
07-cv-461, U.S. District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania
Education Management Corp. (EDMC)
in Pittsburgh the for-profit college operator partly owned by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), must face a 14-year-old lawsuit alleging it engaged in a fraud to wrongfully obtain more than $11 billion in student aid. Education Management concealed prohibited compensation practices such as tying recruitment bonuses directly to the number of students enrolled.
U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry in Pittsburgh today said that it would be premature to grant the company's request to end the lawsuit before the plaintiffs were allowed to gather evidence. The U.S. has intervened in the suit along with 11 states and the District of Columbia. Enrollment at for-profit colleges has been hurt by years of federal and state investigations into their aggressive marketing, high tuition, poor outcomes and recruitment practices.

Education Management LLC and Education Management Finance Corp. Senior Cash Pay/PIK Notes due 2018
The Company (www.edmc.edu), with approximately 125,560 students as of October 2013, is among the largest providers of post-secondary education in North America, based on student enrollment and revenue, with a total of 110 locations in 32 U.S. states and Canada.

9/22/14 Holzer & Holzer Announces Class Action Lawsuit Against Education Management Corp On September 16, 2014, the Company announced that it was delaying the release of its Annual Report, which sent its stock price down significantly.

5/7/14 Report Documents $100 Million in Charter School Fraud in 14 States and D.C.
"Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud And Abuse," authored by the Center for Popular Democracy and Integrity in Education, echoes a warning from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of the Inspector General. The report draws upon news reports, criminal complaints and more to detail how, in just 15 of the 42 states that have charter schools, charter operators have used school funds illegally to buy personal luxuries for themselves, support their other businesses, and more. The report also includes recommendations for policymakers on how they can address the problem of rampant fraud, waste and abuse in the charter school industry. Both organizations recommend pausing charter expansion until these problems are addressed.

9/24/14 Ten Business Lessons for Higher Education Comparing education to the world of business and finance is, at best, an imperfect metaphor. Scholars and educators need to speak up at every opportunity to demonstrate the fraud of for-profit schools. The average graduate at a for-profit school carried $39,950 in debt, yet 72 percent of for-profit degree programs turned out graduates that earned, on average, less than high-school dropouts.

9/24/14 Governor Snyder's EAA BUZZ SCAM
Curt Guyette, an investigative reporter for the ACLU of Michigan, published this story at Detroit Metro News, based on an in-depth exploration of internal documents of Michigan's Education Achievement Authority. The EAA was announced by Governor Rick Snyder in 2011 to “save” the lowest-performing children in Detroit. Students were allowed to re-take tests when they failed to perform well. It was described as standard procedure throughout most, if not all, EAA schools.

FINANCIAL LITERACY

Commerce
without ConscienceEDUCATIONAL CYBERPLAYGROUND

TAX MONEY WASTED BY
THE FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, THAT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT COULD BE USING
BUT THEY DON'T.

Who is watching out for the taxpayers? School "REFORMers" see every child out there as source of funds.

 

Educational CyberPlayGround Inc. ®

The PreK-12 Education Management Industry
K-12 Education Market is all about Business development, strategic planning and successful execution of profitable marketing and sales plans. The Bush Family Monopoly and the Koch Brothers are NOT about education. It is all about selling products.
In 1999, Bill Bennett's educational venture K12, Inc. received $4M of taxpayer NCLB funding.

FACT: July 2010 U.S. Department of Education Active Contracts Over $100,000.00 up to a $ Billion.

20 page PDF shows only a few k12 education companies who may also have more than one contract. Is the Department of Education spending Your Tax Dollars with these Companies?

Educational CyberPlayGround Inc. ®

ANOINTED - APPOINTED
AND CONNEDTED

Political Appointees at the U.S. Department of Education since 2009
WE DIDN'T VOTE FOR THEM
THEY ARE POLITICAL PAYBACKS - CRONY CAPITALISM

Contracts and Federal Spending -- Major Contracting Agency is the Dept. of Education

TAX MONEY SPENT TO FUND PRIVATE COMPANIES |FINANCIAL LITERACY|
The U.S. Department of Education started a $650 million fund to boost education innovation. University of Pennsylvania wants to create one of the nation's only business incubators dedicated to education entrepreneurs.

Educational CyberPlayGround Inc.®

About 200,000 U.S. school children are enrolled in full-time online programs. Eleven years after its founding, K12 has 81,000 students in 27 states and the District of Columbia. If it were a school district, it would be one of the largest in America. K12 expects to generate $500 million in revenue 2011 — it earned a $21.5 million profit 2011 and its stock has doubled in value since the company went public in December 2007.

Constitutions and Government Regulations were invented to restrain the excesses of kings.

The K12 Education Tea Party Players.

FEBRUARY 14, 2001 Bill Bennett, 58, is chairman of K12,
Junk Bond Criminal's brother Lowell Milken and Ron Packard
, executives at education investment company
Knowledge Universe, approached Bennett in November, 1999, about heading up K12 (www.k12.com) His role: making money, bringing in wealthy business partners, potential investors, recruiting board members.

CONVICTED JUNK BOND CRIMINAL MICHAEL MILKEN'S ROLE. K12 (www.k12.com) was formed when Bennett signed up as chairman and Packard became CEO.

Ignite Scam Gov. Program: Convicted junk bond king Milkin, re-appears in 2006 as an investor in Neil Bush's business.

President Obama hired Dept. of Ed. Jim Shelton a Player formally of Knowledge Universe.
2011 The education technology market Herndon's K12 hopes to pass the $1 billion mark in annual revenue in the next few years. CEO Ron Packard grew up in Southern California, did his undergrad at Berkley, and got his MBA at the University of Chicago. He worked at McKinsey & Company as well as for Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions before entering the education market with Knowledge Schools. He chose Virginia to start K12 which is expecting $500 million this year. Will double market for online learning: teaching English to the Chinese, growing a private-school offering, partnering with universities like GW and helping advanced students with refresher courses. “We have about 80,000 full-time students who use our products out of the millions receiving some kind of education out there.

Public institutions are provided for the general welfare of our communities NOT the private mercantile interests of its citizens.

Educational CyberPlayGround Inc. ®

Educational CyberPlayGround Inc.®

In 1999, Bill Bennett's educational venture K12, Inc. received $4M of taxpayer NCLB funding.

Bill Bennett Secretary of Education under Bush an original founder of K12.comBill Bennet managed to cut a deal with Governor Ridge of Pennsylvania who became the Homeland Security guy to be allowed into the state and from there secure business relationships with every other state in the United States. His for profit business has siphoned off more our common wealth from than any other virtual school and made him rich beyond imagination.

X Governor Jeb Bush will create the education monopoly, with the help of his family connections.

Literacy & Government Programs

Ignite! whose original investors include Neil's parents BARBARA BUSH AND PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH. "Neil Bush had raised about $23 million from more than a dozen outside investors, including Mohammed Al Saddah, the head of a Kuwaiti company, and Winston Wong, the head of a Chinese computer firm."
President Bush's education plans will benefit K12 -- vouchers increase funding for charter schools, and educational savings accounts became law then K12.com receives boat loads of federal cash.

Listen Radio Show 866-680-6464

Sandy Kress, chief architect of NCLB and Neil Bush, the president's youngest brother; Harold McGraw III, textbook publisher; Bill Bennett, former Reagan education secretary;, have all cashed in on the Roundtable's successful national implementation of “outcome-based education.”
Other Kress clients
, including Texas Scam Ignite! Learning, a company headed by Neil Bush, and K12 Inc., a for- profit enterprise owned by Bill Bennett, tailored themselves to vie for NCLB dollars.

Offshore Financial Centers between 5 - 7 U.S. trillion of domestically taxable income. Some of the biggest U.S. corporations ,are some of the biggest users of the tax havens to avoid paying the IRS that have taken federal bailout funds.Form D filings show that hedge funds connected to Marvin P. Bush--youngest brother of former president George W. Bush, another $7.8 billion raised by Bush companies, companies directed by Bush co-directors, or spin-off companies. The total is almost $10 billion raised by Bush-connected hedge funds.

Building Prison Cells is Big Busine$$ replacing jobs lost to US citizens.

$16,000. for pre school ed vs.
$$$ 45,000. per prisoner per year.

Educational CyberPlayGround Inc.®

STATE STANDARDS ARE DESIGNED TO FAIL SCHOOLS SO THAT K12 FOR PROFIT CORPORATIONS CAN
MAKE MONEY.

If the test makers create tests that are too easy they lose money. Failure drives their business.


Example of a k12.com
enrollment form.

Stanford University
CHARTER SCHOOL PERFORMANCE IN PENNSYLVANIA 2011
Students in Pennsylvania charter schools learned
significantly less on average than their virtual
counterparts in both reading and mathematics.

THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
IS FOR SALE

Ronald Packard Chairman and Founder, K12 Inc. was previously a vice president of Knowledge Universe and CEO of Knowledge Schools, which provides high-quality childhood education in community- and employer-sponsored centers, and invests in, incubates and operates several charter school companies. Before that, Packard worked for McKinsey & Company, as well as for Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions. A chartered financial analyst, he currently serves on the educational advisory committee of the Department of Defense. Packard earned a bachelor's degree in economics and mechanical engineering with honors at the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA with honors at the University of Chicago.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, worth almost $34 billion in 2012 is directing a project with Stanford University Stevens and Kirst story tellers develop the "supply-side policy" for U.S. colleges and universities.

K12.COM IS
K12 Inc.
(NYSE: LRN)
2010 K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), Ron Packard, founder and CEO of K12 Inc. is the nation's largest provider of proprietary curriculum and online school programs for students in kindergarten through high school.

K-12 Inc Board of Directors is K12.COM
Andrew H. Tisch, Ronald J. Packard, Nathaniel A. Davis, Steven B. Fink, Mary H. Futrell and more. Dr. Craig Barrett, retired CEO/Chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation, joined our board of directors.

LOBBYIST MPGH Agency
Bryan W Flood
Senior Vice President, Public Affairs 703-483-7330 bflood@k12.com
Support: HB-4423; SB-2216; SB-2247; SB- 2205; HB-4410
Neutral: HB-4410; HB-4164; HB-4163; HB-357; SB-2201
Executive Office of Education
Bryan Flood (K12 Inc./Public Affairs), (Zip code: 20187) $250 to BRIAN KENNEDY FOR CONGRESS on 06/30/05
Mr. Bryan W Flood (K12 Inc./Public Affairs), (Zip code: 20187) $500 to BRIAN KENNEDY FOR CONGRESS on 05/26/06
Bryan Flood (K12 Inc./Public Affairs), (Zip code: 20187) $250 to BRIAN KENNEDY FOR CONGRESS on 12/08/05

Bill McCoshen, a lobbyist for K12 Inc. Wisconsin State Superintendent Tony Evers has toured the state, advocating for property tax revenues to go directly into K-12 education funding rather than to local governments.

Fiscal Year 2011 Outlook
The Company is forecasting for full fiscal year 2011 revenues will exceed $500 million without giving effect to the acquisition of American Education Corporation.
K12 / K12.com is a technology-based education company, is the nation's largest provider of proprietary curriculum and online education programs for students in kindergarten through high school. K12 provides services to online public and private schools, traditional classrooms, blended school programs, and directly to families. In partnership with school district and charter schools, K12 operates online public schools in 25 states and the District of Columbia. K12 also operates the K12 International AcademyTM, an accredited, diploma-granting online private school serving students worldwide. K12 has provided over 1.5 million courses to more than 150,000 students worldwide. K12 provides courses in English/Language Arts, Math, Science, History, Music, and Art. The K12 High School program offers students a catalog of more than 130 core, elective, and AP® courses. K12's powerspeaK12® world language program provides courses for students in grades 3-12 in Spanish, French, German, Latin, and Chinese.
2010 K12 Inc. Unveils Strategic Investment in China-based Web International English. K12 Inc., a provider of proprietary curriculum and online school programs for students in kindergarten through high school in the U.S., announced that its Board of Directors has approved a strategic investment in Web International English (Web), an education provider in China. The Company said the $10 million investment gives K12 a 20 percent minority interest in Web, with the option to acquire the remaining ownership interests in the company.

Nationwide, more than 1.6 million public school students attend nearly 5,000 publicly funded, independently operated charter schools. Charters were first established in Pennsylvania in 1997, and there are now 135 charter schools with more than 50,000 students.

Educational CyberPlayGround Inc. ®

Katrina donation ignites debate
By JENNIFER RADCLIFFE
Houston Chronicle, United States March 24, 2006
HISD says focus on Neil Bush's software didn't violate policy
As Barbara Bush spent two hours championing her son's software company at a Houston middle school Thursday morning, a watchdog group questioned whether the former first lady should be allowed to channel a donation to Neil Bush's Ignite Learning company through Houston's Hurricane Katrina relief fund.

"It's strange that the former first lady would want to do this. If her son's having a rough time of it, couldn't she write him a check?" said Daniel Borochoff, founder of the American Institute of Philanthropy, a Chicago-based charity watchdog group. "Maybe she isn't aware that people could frown upon this." continued...chron.com

No Child Left Behind

Race to the Bottom

The early charter "small school movement" has been derailed, and captured by the worst, anti-public school politicians and profiteers. Helped by a decade of
politics and policies, under both parties at the federal level, charter operators and their lobbying groups have dis-empowered teachers and turned charters into a self-interested, anti-public school, anti-union entrepreneurial venture.
While operating mainly on public funding, they also garner hundreds of millions in supplemental support coming from conservative business groups and powerful philanthropists like |FINANCIAL LITERACY| EDUCRATS Gates, Broad and Walton.

Wealthy suburban high-performing public schools are successfully fighting charters with technical legal arguments. Districts show that these for profit schools aren't needed.

Supply Chain

August 2010 This is CEP's third report on ARRA
Key Findings The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the economic stimulus package, appropriated an extra $3 billion for School Improvement Grants to help reform persistently low-performing schools. With the $500 million already provided specifically for this purpose through Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which serves low-achieving children in low-income areas, the ARRA appropriation brings the total funding for school improvement to $3.5 billion, available for use through September 30, 2013.

EDUCATION
BUSINESS SUPPLY CHAIN

Charter schools are a mainstay in the poorest cities, offering students alternatives to struggling public schools but they siphon off students and money from public schools in the district.

Traditional districts in New Jersey are required to send the charter schools 90% of the money per student that the regular school spends, plus provide transportation to charter students.

Half of New Jersey's charters are in just four cities: Camden, Jersey City, Newark, and Trenton.

Educational CyberPlayGround Inc. ®In May 2010 the FTC sued Dun & Bradstreet, alleging that the combination of the two companies created a near monopoly, in violation of federal law, when Dun & Bradstreet acquired more than 90% of the market for kindergarten through twelfth grade marketing data (K-12 data), which is used to market books, educational materials, and other products to teachers and other educators nationwide.

WHY SO MUCH TESTING?

TESTING AND COLLECTING THEN SELLING DATA IS
BIG BUSINE$$

Creativity is the least important, most important attribute and totally absent in the U.S. Federal Department of Education. ~ Karen Ellis

"The good news is the ear has 30,000 channels to the brain, the bad news is that they're all nonlinear. -- M.B. Sachs"

The Education Dept. says there is little valid research comparing online vs. face-to-face instruction for elementary and high school children. K12 did lag behind in a key measure—the percentage of students meeting the federal benchmark for yearly progress toward proficiency on state tests, according to a December 2010 study of companies running for-profit charter schools by researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Three-quarters of K12 schools failed to show sufficient progress, compared with 45 percent of the physical charter schools in the study. K12's results are "just shocking," says Gary Miron, a Western Michigan University professor, one of the study's authors.

Educational CyberPlayGround Inc. ®

Inform the Bureau of Competition about questionable business practices: 202-326-3300, antitrust@ftc.gov, or write to the Office of Policy and Coordination, Room 394, Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W., Washington, DC 20580.

Dun & Bradstreet Settles FTC Charges that 2009 Acquisition was Anti competitive FTC Order Requires Dun & Bradstreet to Divest Previously Acquired Marketing Data Business to Restore Competition.

The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation will divest certain key assets as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission that is designed to address the competitive harm caused by its acquisition of Quality Educational Data (QED), its nearest rival in the education marketing business. Prior to the acquisition, QED was a division of Scholastic, Inc.

LOOPHOLE:The $29 million acquisition was below the threshold that would have triggered pre-merger filing requirements, and therefore the companies were not required to notify the FTC and Department of Justice.

EVERY DOG
HAS THEIR DAY

The FTC settlement requires Dun & Bradstreet to divest certain assets to MCH Inc., an institutional and educational data company active in the K-12 data market, to restore competition that was eliminated as a result of the transaction. Under the terms of the settlement, Dun & Bradstreet will be required to sell MCH an updated K-12 database, the QED name, and certain associated intellectual property.
The settlement also includes additional terms to ensure that the divestiture restores competition. For example, certain Dun & Bradstreet customers will have the option to terminate their contracts with the firm without penalty so that they can consider doing business with MCH. The order also releases certain Dun & Bradstreet employees from restrictions on their ability to work for MCH. In addition, Dun & Bradstreet will be required to provide MCH with technical assistance for up to one year. Finally, the order calls for the appointment of a Commission-designated monitor to ensure compliance with its terms.

race to the top

Race to the TOP

IS A RACE TO THE BOTTOM

$4.3 billion is only granted if you accept the conditions.
The rewards range from $75 million to $ 700 million per state - a big boost at a time when school budgets are strapped. The winning states must use the funds to turn around low performing schools - recruit and reward top teachers - and track student performance.
To get the money some districts start to use a value-added analysis in teacher evaluation.

"VALUE ADDED"

TOTAL BULL USED IN THE
EDUCATION STORY NARRATIVE

"VALUE-ADDED" ANALYSIS is a statistical method that estimates the effectiveness of a teacher or school by looking at the standardized test scores of student, but can not identify the best and worst teachers.

BOGUS BUSINESS JARGON
is used to impress the public who doesn't realize

MEDIA MAKES MONEY when they help their advertisers publish nonsense without exposing the true culprits who are making money in the department of education. This tactic is used to transfer the tax payers money away from the public schools and into the pockets of the corporation.

Educational CyberPlayGround Inc.®

COMPETIVIE GRANT$
IT ISN'T MAGIC

Getting grant money depends on who you know. People on the committee give the money to their friends and the unknown politician who walks into the room and ads points to the application to make it win.

competitive grant money

The language of economics: Grant-makers should use think tanks and political-action groups to convert intellectual raw materials into policy “products.” Mercatus Center is a means of laundering economic aims.You take corporate money and give it to a neutral-sounding think tank, which hires people with pedigrees and academic degrees who put out credible-seeming studies. But they all coincide perfectly with the economic interests of their funders. ~ |FINANCIAL LITERACY|

Competitive Grant Money will never do anything with standards and assessments that will prepare students for college and competing in a global economy, or make sure schools have highly effective teachers and principals, or turn around any public school. But it is the Tool for the Federal Government to take your money out of the commons - away from the public school system and give it directly to The FOR PROFIT COMPANIES who Build data systems to measure students WHO WILL BE RICH.

Educational CyberPlayGround Inc. ®

Competitive Grants

Education Reform Deform money

Race to the Bottom Awards 2010

9 States to share $3.4 billion

1. Massachusetts $250,000,000
471.0 411.4 59.6
2. New York $700,000,000
464.8 408.6 56.2
3. Hawaii $75,000,000
462.4 364.6 97.8
4. Florida $700,000,000
452.4 431.4 21
5. Rhode Island $75,000,000
451.2 419.0 32.2
6. District of Columbia $75,000,000
450.0 402.4 47.6
7. Maryland $250,000,000
450.0 N/A N/A
8. Georgia $400,000,000
446.4 433.6 12.8
9. North Carolina $400,000,000
441.6 414.0 27.6
10 Ohio $400,000,000
440.8 418.6 22.2


MORE ANOINTED
AND APPOINTED
AND CONNECTED

Federal Grants: Money for Incubators:

Dept. of Education feeds the Private Business Enterprise

The U.S. Department of Education grant competition aimed at education innovation.

List of Grant Reviewers -- fyi:Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Announces $400 Million Innovation Fund.

These are dollars that have been shifted away from public school funding and used, through competitive grants, to promote unfair competition, rather than collaboration between charters and traditional schools. This distorted form of competition has led to a new class of selective-enrollment schools and a new version of the old two-tier system of education based on discrimination and racial segregation. Post-Katrina New Orleans, as Diane Ravitch describes in a recent Bridging Differences post, "What I Learned in New Orleans."


Truth

The Los Angeles Times and an EDUCATION ECONOMIST
set out to create precisely such a consumer guide to education in Los Angeles.

Remember .....

AS WE SAID BEFORE
there is a fine line between an eCONomist AND A CRIMINAL

National Academies of Science have warned policymakers that most districts lack sufficient data and statisticians lack solid methods for estimating a teacher's discrete impact on student learning, after taking into account the influence of confounding factors.

DO NOT GET RID OF THE COMPETITION
SUPPORT THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Recent reports from the state Department of Education reveal some alarming statistics regarding schools and libraries. Out of 261 public schools in Hawaii, 42 of these schools (16%) currently have a library but no librarian position allocated to it. When these figures are broken down by district, the figures become even more alarming: On the Big Island 37 % of our public schools have no librarian (and anecdotal evidence indicates this number will increase to at least 41% for next school year)

We Love Librarians

MADAME LIBRARAIN
IS THE
FIERCE GODDESS WARRIOR

WE LOVE LIBRARIES
WE LOVE OUR LIBRARIANS
THE TRUE HERO'S AND HEROINES
OF THE COMMONS
AND PROTECTING YOUR LIBERTY.

"Libraries are early and enthusiastic adopters of digital innovations. But these innovations bring the values of the marketplace with them.

Through innocuous incremental stages, academic libraries have reached a point where they are now guided largely by the mores of commerce, not academe." http://chronicle.com/article/Library-Inc/124915/

By eviscerating public services and reducing them to a network of farmed-out private providers, we have begun to dismantle the fabric of the state. As for the dust and powder of individuality: it resembles nothing so much as Hobbes's war of all against all, in which life for many people has once again become solitary, poor and more than a little nasty. -Tony Judt

Wall Street Journal: "In this suburb of St. Paul, the new library branch has no librarians, no card catalog and no comfortable chairs in which to curl up and read. Instead, the Library Express is a stack of metal lockers outside city hall. When patrons want a book or DVD, they order it online and pick it up from a digitally locked, glove-compartment- sized cubby a few days later."

Truth

Morals Without God?

Even Monkeys have a sense of justice, and an aversion to inequity.

Monkeys Like people, are no fools when it comes to knowing what is fair, and even mourn, their dead.

EMPATHY DEMANDS THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION BE

REDESIGNED BY DESIGNERS

FOR THE COMMON GOOD
OF THE CITIZENS!

NOT THE UNHOLY ALLIANCE OF POLITICIANS AND INDUSTRY.

HOW THE GAME
IS PLAYED

Losses of
low-achieving students

help raise school ratings

under the accountability system.
Tax Payer Money
Stolen from The Commons

The accountability system allows principals to hold back students who are deemed at risk of reducing the school's scores; many students retained this way end up dropping out.

The test scores grouped by race single out the low-achieving students in these subgroups as potential liabilities to the school ratings, increasing incentives for school administrators to allow those students to quietly exit the system.

Official dropout rates, in the 2 to 3% range, and the actual rates can be attributed to the state's method of counting, which does not include students who drop out of school for reasons such as pregnancy or incarceration or declare intent to take the GED sometime in the future.
Pushed Out - hide the real numbers. The accountability system's zero tolerance rules for attendance and behavior, which put youth into the court system for minor offenses and absences, alienate students and increase the likelihood they will drop out.

 

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? ------>>>>>>>>>