Jeff Kwitowski
SVP, Public Affairs
K12 Inc.

In an effort to defeat new education reform laws that are on the ballot in Idaho this November, opponents of the measures – led by state and national teachers unions –  have waged an aggressive and well-funded campaign.  Not surprisingly the union’s campaign includes a strong dose of fear and deception. 

For example, on the issue of Proposition 3, a new law recently adopted requiring computing devices and online courses for high school

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Jeff is out of the office this week, so I’ll try to channel my “inner-Kwitowski” and offer some observations about the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) and their Report on K¹² Inc.” released yesterday. 

First, though, let me direct everyone to both the K¹² Response Document that we made available yesterday, and to the K¹² Virtual Academies Academic Performance Trends report released by K¹² in April. Both of these documents are available to download as PDFs on

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Misinformation on K12 Inc. and online public charter schools is circulating across NC and much of it appears to come from a left-wing political group, NC Policy Watch.   They are hardly a neutral observer, however.  The group’s legal arm is trying to block the opening of an approved online public charter school, North Carolina Virtual Academy.

Much of their argument seems to stem from a one-sided article in the New York Times that was published last year.  A number of responses to that

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A few observations on the recent National School Boards Association’s (NSBA) report on virtual schools.

1. 1. Overall, it’s nothing new; a rehash of reports from years past.  Much of this information has been presented, discussed and debated in state capitols across the country.  The report does, however, draw mostly negative conclusions about online schools, which is not a surprise given the policy views of NSBA and aggressive lobbying by its state chapters against charter schools,

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A news report out of Colorado contained a lot of the same mistakes and mischaracterizations that others have made about online schools.  However, it did one thing well:  highlighted the need for Colorado to reexamine its school funding model to ensure funds follow students to the school of their choice anytime during the school year. 

Currently, the state funds all public schools based on a single calendar year enrollment count date (October 1).  This means that if a student needs to

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Washington State has been progressive in education policy in many respects.For instance, it embraced online learning in public schools earlier than many states, created Alterative Learning Experience (ALE) programs, and approved the 2005 digital program law.

Since then, ALE programs have become an accepted, valued and vibrant part of public education in the Evergreen State.But some legislators in Olympia seem willing to roll back progress by singling them out for significant and additional

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