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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Recently, K12 Inc. issued a statement responding to media reports regarding K12 teachers and Florida’s state certification requirements.   These media reports included allegations that K12 was using non-certified teachers in Florida.  Those allegations are not true.  K12 teachers who teach students in Florida are state certified.  In many cases, they are over qualified for the courses they teach.

After learning of the allegations made by one Florida school district, K12 conducted an

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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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North Carolina is host to the latest battle over expanding digital learning, charter schools, and parent choice.  It involves attempts by the State Board of Education (SBE) and the NC School Boards Association to block a proposed online public charter school, North Carolina Virtual Academy (NCVA) from serving students this Fall.  But beyond the details of this one new charter school, this issue has sparked a renewed debate over governance, and whether the principal virtue of “local

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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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My daughter, who was adopted from Tanzania in 2008, has greatly enjoyed K12 Virginia Virtual Academy (VAVA), which is a public school option in Virginia. I am a former school public school teacher in Martinsville City Schools and have four older children who went through public school, so I am not anti-public (brick and mortar) schools.  

I heard of K12 many years ago through my sister and another friend who used it in Pennsylvania with their children.  I had kept it in the back of my mind

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January 18, 2012

The New York Times
Editorials on Education

To Everyone’s Concern:

The article published in the New York Times on December 12, 2011 has compelled me to respond.  The content presented such a shallow view of virtual education and k12 specifically that I feel it paramount to share my experience. 

A thirty-seven-year career in major Northern Virginia and Maryland school systems, as both a teacher and an administrator, prepared me well to be hypercritical of virtual

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The New York Times article featuring K12 Inc. was as one-sided as I expected it would be.  The reporter editorializes throughout and took great care to use only selective information to put the most negative slant on K12 and online schools. The reporter liberally quotes well-known critics but gives no room for leading voices supportive of education reform.

This despite hours of time spent with K12’s academic and curriculum experts and school leaders, and more email exchanges than I can

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I recently responded to a misinformed New York Times (NYT) column that questioned the value online public schools. Unfortunately, NYT shut down the comment section and did not give parents the opportunity to share their stories and tell readers why they chose online public schools for their children. Many parents took to the K12 Facebook page to make their voices heard.

Here are some of their reactions:

“…I disagree with her. my son does [the] k12 program and has more time to learn and

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No doubt getting a preview of a NYT piece yet to come, Gail Collins uses her column to question the validity of online public schools (for everyone except middle class homeschoolers), and tries to make her case using some flimsy arguments, and familiar critics:

• Kevin Welner from the union-funded National Education Policy Center who dismisses the extensive research in the field of online learning as nothing but “a couple of blog entries.”  These reports, evaluations, and studies don’t

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Much is often said about the value of online schools from people with little or no experience.  The voices that are too often left out are the most important ones –parents and students.  Below are comments from some of the K12 families that utilize online public schools, answering a question posed on K12’s Facebook page.  The question asks, “The reason our family chose online school for our educational needs is ...”

Read the reasons these parents and students chose online public

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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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I thought Tennessee state representative Fitzhugh’s column was over the top until I read this piece from state senator Andy Berke (D-Chattanooga). 

Senator Berke slams Tennessee’s new law expanding online school options for children calling it the “most destructive piece of legislation” that “could do the most damage to Tennessee education.”  Quite an inflated indictment, but that’s about the extent of his argument, at least as it relates to actual policy.  After that he packs

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I couldn’t let this column by state Rep. Craig Fitzhugh (D-TN) titled, “Virtual Schools Bad for Education Reform” go by without responding.  It was so full of errors I almost didn’t know where to start.  I don’t know Rep. Fitzhugh, so I won’t suggest he was intentionally misleading readers.  I’ll just give him the benefit of the doubt and presume that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.  Let me attempt to dissect it. 

Rep. Fitzhigh writes, “Under HB 1030, local

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Yesterday in my blog I wrote how the real frustration for Tennessee families is not with Tennessee Virtual Academy, K12, or Union County Public Schools, but with trying to work through the myriad of state-mandated forms required for enrollment.

At the end of day, parents can overcome paperwork, but it is really hard to overcome bureaucratic power and control. 

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Boy, did the Memphis Commercial Appeal get it wrong.

On August 20, the Appeal published a slanted article calling the new Tennessee Virtual Academy, “a real headache,” suggesting  widespread frustration among families attempting to enroll their children in the new online public school.

Considering the high level of excitement from Tennessee families and the rush to participate in Tennessee Virtual Academy (TNVA), I was very skeptical.

The Appeal’s story is based almost entirely on a

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Recently, K12 Inc. partnered with the Union Country school district in Tennessee to open Tennessee Virtual Academy (TNVA) to serve students throughout the state. While many are excited to have an alternative for their children and welcome the innovation, there are some who are unsure.

The Memphis newspaper, Commercial Appeal, wrote a largely one-dimensional story about TNVA charging that it will “siphon off taxpayer funds,” as if that was the only goal of Union County Public School when it

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