The last year alone has seen virtual schools dramatically expand across the country. According to the AP, “Ohio lifted a moratorium on new ‘e-schools,’ and Utah passed a ‘virtual voucher’ law,” which lets high school kids determine which classes they prefer to take online and at school. Another roundup by the Wall Street Journal includes similar moves in Virginia, which signed off on 13 new cyberschools. Florida now mandates that high school students enroll in one online course at a minimum and Idaho has moved to implement a requirement for at least two online courses. Georgia offers an app that lets high-schoolers take classes on their smartphones, reports the Journal.
What better way than to have legislative allies create laws that will ensure a profit margin for their client. Nevermind if its the right thing. Its the choice, you see. So lets follow the money.
Five for-profit companies control the cyberschool market: K12 Inc., Connections Academy, Educational Options, Apex Learning, and Plato. These virtual charter school providers supply course material, keep track of student achievement and hire educators.
K12 Inc., based in Herndon, Virginia, is the country’s largest cyberschool provider. In just four years, K12’s full-time enrollment has more than doubled to 94,000 school kids.
In an investigation of virtual charter school companies published in the Nation, Lee Fang discovered a massive but largely quiet campaign by corporate front-groups to push policies in state legislatures that benefit “education-technology companies.”
Two of these major players, K12 Inc. and Apex Learning are major financiers of Jeb Bush’s Foundation which is quickly revealing itself to be a lobbying firm for the online education industry. It is Bush who pushed for the online requirement (not a choice, btw)and who also lobbied incoming governor Rick Scott to sell Florida Virtual School.
Would anyone be surprised to see Florida Virtual sold to one of his corporate sponsors?
Scathing Purple Musings 
I’m not in Florida but in Missouri. I was not aware about the virtual requirement for at least one high school class. It may very well be for the reasons you state. I think these basis for these type of educational requirements and mandates are spelled out by our Commissioner of Education, Chris Nicastro. She informed us the basis of the plan for our state (which is quite possibly applicable in other states) in Missouri’s original Race to the Top proposal in 2009:
“Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself.
Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society. Using colorful examples from the most important aspects of life, Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful “choice architecture” can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice.”
I hope that is helpful. Progressive thought (believing we need “nudging” because taxpayers are too dull to run our own schools or even have input) empowers capitalists (ready to supply the services needed for the nudging) and viola, the takeover of schools is complete! And it’s all done in a bipartisan manner.
Would you allow children to choose their own diet? We already have an obese citizenry. It appears choosing our own diets doesn’t even work for a lot of adults. So, choosing your own education is next? We will have an even dumber citizenry than we have now. Perhaps that is the outcome desired by the elite one percent.
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