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Cyber Schools Fleece Taxpayers for Phantom Students and Failing Grades
Cyber Schools Fleece Taxpayers for Phantom Students and Failing Grades
Thursday, 03 October 2013 09:32
By Mary Bottari, PRWatch | News Analysis
The data is in and K12 Inc.'s brand of full-time public "cyber school" is garbage. Not surprising for an educational model kicked off with a $10 million investment from junk-bond king Michael Milken.
Milken was the Wall Street financier who virtually invented junk-bonds -- high-risk securities that were used to leverage hostile buyouts in the "go-go" 1980s. Milken came to symbolize Wall Street excess, serving as inspiration for the Michael Douglas character Gordon Gekko in the 1987 movie Wall Street. Milken spent almost two years in a federal penitentiary for securities fraud.
After he was released from prison, Milken set his sights on the $600 billion public education "market," forming new companies including Knowledge Universe and Knowledge Learning, parent company of the KinderCare child care chain. With his $10 million stake in K12 Inc., Milken aided one of his Vice Presidents and another junk dealer, Ron Packard, who specialized in mergers and acquisitions for Goldman Sachs back in the '80s.
The duo prepped to exploit the public education sector, and boy, have they. His various educational ventures have made Milken one of the richest men in America, and Packard raked in over $16 million in compensation from 2008 to 2012 as CEO of K12 Inc. Almost all of that money came from U.S. taxpayers. ...........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/19204-cyber-schools-fleece-taxpayers-for-phantom-students-and-failing-grades
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Cyber Schools Fleece Taxpayers for Phantom Students and Failing Grades (Original Post)
marmar
Oct 2013
OP
yurbud
(39,405 posts)1. and too many members of the corporate wing of the Democratic Party support this as much as Repubs...
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)4. including the one in the white house
QC
(26,371 posts)6. Shhhhhh! You're not supposed to notice that.
But yeah, corporate ed "reformers" have captured the leadership of both parties.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)2. I become infuriated over information like this b/c it is THEFT and FRAUD.
This has been in the works for awhile.
Freaking bastards belong in jail..along with those who enable this bullshit to continue.
K&R
Doc_Technical
(3,526 posts)3. The creatures who run these con games aren't human..
..they are Ferengi.
Their only God is money
Their only morality is profit.