Labor Voices: Money drives for-profit cyber school recruitment
As we approach the new school year, we’re still faced by challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic and the priority of keeping students, educators and communities safe.
With the right virus mitigation measures, Michigan has shown in-person school can be safe – and many families and educators are looking forward to the academic and social-emotional support that comes from face-to-face interaction.
But that’s not stopping profiteers from swooping in to try to make money off parents’ pandemic-driven uncertainty. For-profit cyber schools are engaged in big advertising blitzes to recruit students, regardless of whether it’s the right fit for them or not.
To be clear, virtual learning can be a good thing for some students – and it doesn’t have to have a profit motive. Last year, our experience with pandemic learning taught educators many lessons that improved teaching and learning over time. Some students thrived in this setting, but far too many struggled.
No matter how far virtual education has come, there is broad agreement that nothing can truly replace in-person learning. The connection between teachers and students cannot be replicated by computer screens alone.
Contrary to the needs of most students, for-profit cyber schools are bombarding parents with aggressive marketing and advertising efforts, using safety concerns to enhance their sales pitch.
Prior to the pandemic, a plethora of companies competed for students and the state funding that comes with them. That funding – now $8,700 per pupil – is a financial windfall for these for-profit, online schools. While receiving the same level of funding as brick-and-mortar neighborhood public schools, these online schools incur a fraction of the expenses.
For-profit cyber schools have no buildings to maintain, no buses or transportation costs, no athletic teams, bands, school plays—all of the things that make a school community. Without those costs, they can maximize their number one goal: profit.
That is what sets brick-and-mortar public schools apart from for-profit cyber schools. In school buildings across the state, the goal is to provide a high-quality education for every student. There is no profit motive.
While these for-profit companies are making millions off Michigan taxpayers, their track record of academic achievement has been dismal. In “The National Study of Online Charter Schools,” Stanford University found students attending cyber charters lagged students in traditional public schools.
The study showed that cyber school students received the equivalent of 180 fewer days of learning in math and 72 fewer days of instruction in reading than their peers in traditional schools.
Prior to the Stanford research, a 2010 University of Colorado study found that only 30 percent of virtual schools run by for-profit companies met minimum progress standards under federal guidelines. The study also found cyber schools’ on-time graduation rate was half the national average, while their student-to-teacher ratio was twice that of public schools.
This data runs headlong into ongoing safety concerns some parents have returning their children to in-person classrooms. This pandemic clearly is not over and the Delta variant is creating a worrisome surge in COVID-19 cases.
However, so long as we follow the safety guidance from health experts like the CDC, schools can reopen safely for in-person learning. We all have our part to do, both inside and outside school, to keep students, families, educators and communities healthy. Vaccination and masking are our best tools to fight the coronavirus – and by using those tools, Michigan students can safely benefit from personal interaction with educators and socialization with their peers that only in-person learning can provide.
Paula Herbart is president of the Michigan Education Association.
Labor Voices
Labor Voices columns are written on a rotating basis by United Auto Workers President Rory Gamble, Teamsters President James Hoffa and Michigan Education Association President Paula Herbart.
I want to start off by saying that I am a former member and former public school educator. While I support my brothers and sisters in the union, I found it very difficult to be a teacher over the last 2 years especially with the pandemic. I lost my job before the school year that it started but I took a job at a for profit education company as a virtual teacher.
I will admit they are in it for the profits for the most part but I do see that us teachers are still putting in the care. They’re using the good teachers because the public system failed them. I see no difference between the CEOs I work for and the superintendents at the public level except for a couple things:
My benefits are cheaper, I get paid the same rate as public with bonuses, I get more time off, and most of all I am safe.
Say what you want about mask mandates for schools or vaccines but it is now more dangerous to be in the public sector because they are all mostly in person and the safety at many of these schools are second tier to the staff as well as students.
Where’s the protection MEA? There are teachers dying of COVID and you do nothing except pat the teachers on the back while they struggle to make ends meet and try not to die.
I am a proud supporter of unions but the MEA needs to step up. I don’t care what you have to do, I wouldn’t mind a state wide strike if that’s what it takes for these politicians and people to understand our struggles. But I will not just let things go back to the way they were before.
I almost came back to the public sector this year but nothings changed, and it’s actually worse.
I may work for a profit company now, but at least I know I’m safe. I’m sorry, but I need a reason to come back.