The whole premise of Idaho Education News’ March 5 story — that virtual schools send millions of dollars to private companies — ignores that all public schools do the same exact thing.
Traditional brick and mortar public schools pay millions in tax dollars every year for curriculum.
Who are they paying – nonprofits?
A simple Google search found that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a private company and the largest K-12 instructional provider in America by revenue, made a gross profit of over a half billion dollars in 2021 on revenue of $1.1 billion. It serves over 50 million students.
Everyone knows the company, Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher of children’s books. Their products can be found in literally every elementary school. Last year, they generated billions in gross profits.
These are just two examples, and I have no issue with either for being paid for the services they provide. This whole notion that only private companies profit from virtual schools is ridiculous and simply isn’t fair.
Families all across Idaho in every legislative district choose virtual schools because of medical challenges, special needs – or they’re just better than their brick-and-mortar counterparts. I guess it doesn’t matter that 85% of all Idaho virtual funding goes directly into teaching, learning and student services.
This story, coupled with disgraceful attempts in Boise to cut millions in funding from our schools, have made it clear that our children are seen as second-class students. Until the same stories and questions are asked of all public schools – it’s impossible to come to any other conclusion.
