It’s imperative that our stakeholders understand that charter schools aren’t afraid to make the tough decisions.
Recently, this statement from the Georgia Cyber Academy was issued on services provided by K12 and regarding its relationship and ongoing challenges with K12 Inc. (K12) Georgia Cyber Academy.
“For the past 12 years, Georgia Cyber Academy (GCA) has served more than 100,000 students as the largest public school in the state of Georgia, using online live instruction and Georgia-licensed teachers to provide a personalized learning experience for students in Kindergarten through 12th grade.
To support our educational services, GCA contracts with a variety of vendors to provide technical and other support to our staff and students. Based on a recent audit and other challenges, GCA recently opted to terminate use of the curriculum supplied by K12 Inc. (a for-profit education management company) and implement new curricula that has resulted in improved student academic performance. GCA has moved in this new direction on behalf of our staff and students.
Unfortunately, GCA’s actions taken to benefit its students have been met with retaliation from K12, opting to, among other actions, freeze staff and student computers, cut off the school’s access to systems with important student information and redirect the GCA website to their own (thereby making enrollment and other administrative tasks undertaken by parents more difficult).
We are disappointed K12 has taken actions that have adversely impacted the lives of GCA’s students and parents. We are in the process of addressing these and other issues swiftly so our students receive the support and resources they need to pursue and reach their academic goals.
We look forward to a successful 2019-2020 school year and being able to offer improved services to all Georgia students.
For GCA families who have questions, please reach out to GCA using this email address at [email protected].
Jason has worked in education for over 15 years as a teacher, blogger and community advocate. He speaks and writes primarily about the need to improve education for Black boys, particularly increasing the number of Black male educators in schools. In addition to blogging here at EdLanta, Jason is also a featured writer at Education Post.