K12 Inc. Data Breach Puts thousands of students at risk

It's hard to believe school districts are still contracting with this horrible company.

K12 Inc. is the largest for-profit online alternative to actual public schooling. Trump's Ed Secretary Betsy DeVos touts the company and other for-profit cyber charter schools as a viable alternative to public schools. But her support for K12 Inc. and other private companies that run them, may have more to do with her and her husband's investment portfolio than with any positive results for students.

The company has been rocked with scandal and has long been under investigation for its shady business dealings. Here's the latest...

A K12 Inc. company database that included information for 19,000 students was available for anyone with an internet connection to see for at least a week, according to a report from Comparitech, which describes itself as a pro-consumer organization that offers security services.

It's not clear that anyone with ill intentions accessed the information during the data exposure, which lasted from June 23 until July 1.

The data came from the for-profit virtual education provider's A+nyWhere Learning System, a software package used by more than 500 school districts, according to K-12 Inc. Students' names, genders, birthdates, school names, and more were visible. In all, there were over 7 million records available. -- Digital Education

K12 Inc. says the breach is no big deal. Goes on about its business.

MEANWHILE...Ron Packard, the founder and former CEO of K12 Inc. who now runs Accel Charter Schools, is buying up closed public schools.

The Accel chain already has 41 schools in Ohio, including 14 in Cleveland, after starting business here just four years ago. Those include schools once run by the former White Hat, I Can and Mosaica networks, which Packard took over to launch Accel.