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Nation's Largest Online Ed Company Says It's Not Behind Idaho's Mystery Props 1,2,3 Effort

JenCarole
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Flickr Creative Commons

If you had hoped to find out this week who donated money to an organization campaigning for Idaho’s Propositions 1, 2, and 3: you’re out of luck. An Idaho district judge had been scheduled to hear arguments from Idaho’s Secretary of State and Education Voters of Idaho today. Ed Voters want people to keep the state’s Students Come First education laws which are up for voter repeal. But the group doesn’t want to say where it got its funding.

Secretary Ben Ysursa wants a court order for that information. Friday’s hearing was cancelled after Ed Voters’ lawyer tried late Thursday to get the case moved to federal court. But today a judge in Idaho’s Federal court remanded it back to state courts. Ysursa and Ed Voters are reportedly trying to reach an agreement on which judge should decide the case.

While who did finance Education Voters of Idaho remains a mystery, one company says its name is not on the donor list. The Nation’s largest for-profit online education company, K12 Inc. says it did not give money to campaign on behalf of the ballot referenda. K12 is the content provider for Idaho’s largest charter school - the Idaho Virtual Academy.  The Academy got nearly $11 million from Idaho taxpayers last year.

Campaign material from the group opposed to Prop’s 1, 2, and 3 claims that K12 stands to benefit from the Students Come First education laws.

The company wants to distance itself from the upcoming vote. In a statement sent to KBSX, K12 says it had nothing to do with the development of the laws, is not donating to campaign efforts and “supports expanding student choice and access to all online and blended learning options, rather than requiring online courses for high school graduation.”

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