Guest blogger Ron Packard is CEO of K12 Inc., the country’s largest online learning company. In this post, he responds to criticisms of the effectiveness and cost of K12′s schools raised in a New York Times report last week.

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The number of students in kindergarten through 12th grade enrolled in virtual schools nationwide has grown to 225,000 from 50,000 a decade ago—and 30% year over year since 2001, says Susan Patrick, chief executive of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a nonprofit advocacy group. Some parents choose virtual schooling to accommodate a heavy schedule of extracurricular classes or interests; others feel their children's needs are better served outside a traditional classroom. Here are two families' experiences.

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The New York Times ran a tabloid-style hit piece on K12, the online learning provider. They apparently didn't speak to many parents that appreciate full time virtual schools as an option. Follow are excerpts of 10 notes I received from parents this week with a different story.

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The New York Times ran a long story attacking K12, Inc. and online learning today.  It is part of a series of hit pieces targeting private companies supporting innovations in learning that salaciously lift worst-case examples and present them as representative. Maybe this is what tabloids do, but we used to expect more of the Times.

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What’s wrong with the NY Times article, “Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools”?  Let me count the ways:

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New York Times writer, Stephanie Saul, occupied Wall Street this morning by bashingonline education once again to “sell readership” for the paper.  The New York Times loves to stir the corporate greed vs. “poor old” schools play, but the reality is we have great schools and terrible schools in both the face-to-face and online world. What we should be talking about is outcomes, measures, and supports. Great leaders inspire, model, partner, coach, and check in on them – poor leaders do not.

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