Staff reports
EAGnews.org

LANSING, Mich. – Perhaps it was a stupid slip-up in a rush to discredit online charter schools. Perhaps it was an intentional attempt to mislead lawmakers and the public.

Whatever the case, officials from the American Federation of Teachers Michigan embarrassed themselves earlier this week when they claimed cyber school operator K 12 Inc. made $522 million in profits last year.

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Michigan Capitol Confidential reports that K 12 Inc. actually reported total revenues of $522.5 million, with a net income (profit) of $12.8 million. That reality quickly eroded the union’s claim that the company would reap boat loads of cash if legislation to expand cyber schools is approved by the Michigan legislature.

“They are just confusing revenues with profits,” Michael Van Beek, education policy director for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy told the news site. “It blows up their argument that this company is going to make hundreds of millions of dollars in operating these schools.”

Michigan Senate Bill 619, which would expand the number of cyber schools in the state, passed the Senate last year. The state House passed the bill last month with some changes and it’s heading back to the Senate for a concurrence vote, MCC reports.

We suspect union officials are a little red-faced about the mix-up, but there’s no doubt they will continue to fight vigorously against virtual learning. That’s because cyber schools are virtually always run by non-unionized companies that compete with public schools for students, and the state dollars that follow them.

If students leave public schools for online learning, there’s less demand for AFT teachers – which will ultimately decrease the union’s revenue stream from member dues. In other words, the unions don’t want cyber school companies to make a profit, because it would eat away at union profits.

Mackinac Center’s Van Beek tells MCC that as long as AFT-organized public schools provide quality instruction, the union shouldn’t have anything to fear from cyber schools. Parents and students would leave public schools “only if they feel there’s a better option than the school they’re assigned by the state,” Van Beek said.

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But the unions don’t want to give families any options beyond union-staffed government schools. Do they really deserve such a monopoly over the K-12 education system and the billions of tax dollars poured into it?