Craig Barrett’s company, K12 Inc., “the worst of the worst”?

by David Safier

Craig Barrett, the man Brewer appointed to head A-Wreck (that's how it sounds. The acronym is AREC: Arizona Ready Education Council), likes to brag about BASIS schools, where he's the President and Chairman. But he doesn't talk much about sitting on the Board of Directors of K12 Inc., a for profit, publicly traded online school corporation which has been getting lots of bad press lately. You know, about low test scores and things like that.

Mississippi is about to open up the state to charter schools, but it's saying No to online schools. And Nancy Loome, executive director of the Parents' Campaign, singled out K12 Inc. for special condemnation:

"We cannot afford to let someone in with such a history," [Loome] said after the committee voted Tuesday. "They are the worst of the worst."

K12 Inc. is the worst of the worst? I wonder if Craig Barrett's ears are burning.

I looked up The Parents' Campaign. It seems to have a middle-of-the-road education agenda. But I guess it's heard the same bad things about K12 Inc. others of us who follow education have. For instance, the corporation's Arizona online school, Arizona Virtual Academy, is one of 27 Arizona charters on academic probation. More bad scores, and it loses its charter.

I wonder how long it will take someone in the MSM to ask Mr. Barrett a question like: "You like to talk about BASIS, which only educates the cream of Arizona's academic crop, as an example for other schools to follow. Why don't we hear about Arizona Virtual Academy, part of K12 Inc. whose Board you sit on? It has a far broader student body than BASIS, and it's on academic probation. Any comments, Mr. Barrett?"