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In December 2013, after $2.3 million in tax dollars was diverted from public schools to student vouchers used at a single private school in Milwaukee, the founders abruptly shuttered the school in the dead of night and relocated to a home with an in-ground pool in sunny Palm Coast, Fla.
Here's what they left behind: Just one student enrolled in the now defunct LifeSkills Academy was found to be proficient in reading and math in the last full school year. Just one.
While privatization advocates say they want to give parents choices, they spend plenty of time vilifying our public schools and their teachers. Ironically, not a single public school in the United States has the appalling student performance record of LifeSkills Academy.
Stories like LifeSkills Academy's are not an exception. From heads of tax-credit-receiving private schools in Arizona and Florida purchasing luxury cars with public dollars, outsourced schools that fail to properly report revenues in Pennsylvania, to schools taking public dollars to teach creationism in Indiana, these stories are too common. Even worse are abuses and improprieties that are perfectly legal.
Take a look at the record of one of the largest virtual schools, K12 Inc. It was founded in 2000 by a Wall Street trader with help from Michael Milken, who made school privatization his second career after a felony conviction ended his career in high-yield bonds. K12 raked in more than $848 million last year, largely from taxpayer dollars.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-america/perspectives/the-luxe-life-of-the-school-privatization-business-20140523
Here's what they left behind: Just one student enrolled in the now defunct LifeSkills Academy was found to be proficient in reading and math in the last full school year. Just one.
While privatization advocates say they want to give parents choices, they spend plenty of time vilifying our public schools and their teachers. Ironically, not a single public school in the United States has the appalling student performance record of LifeSkills Academy.
Stories like LifeSkills Academy's are not an exception. From heads of tax-credit-receiving private schools in Arizona and Florida purchasing luxury cars with public dollars, outsourced schools that fail to properly report revenues in Pennsylvania, to schools taking public dollars to teach creationism in Indiana, these stories are too common. Even worse are abuses and improprieties that are perfectly legal.
Take a look at the record of one of the largest virtual schools, K12 Inc. It was founded in 2000 by a Wall Street trader with help from Michael Milken, who made school privatization his second career after a felony conviction ended his career in high-yield bonds. K12 raked in more than $848 million last year, largely from taxpayer dollars.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-america/perspectives/the-luxe-life-of-the-school-privatization-business-20140523
