AFT's Nancy Van Meter, guest-blogging Friday at Marc Dean Millot's edbizbuzz blog, wrote about K12, Inc.'s recent initial public offering, noting that it fell short of the company's expectations.

This week’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) by K12, the Herndon, VA-based operator of virtual charter schools, generated much less attention than the buzz surrounding Edison Schools’ much-heralded IPO nearly ten years ago. Edison’s pioneering IPO was greeted with predictions that innovative reforms, improved student achievement and economies of scale would follow the private sector expansion into operating public schools. By contrast, K12’s IPO received scant notice beyond newspaper business sections. AP reported that investors “embraced” K12’s offering while The Washington Post reported that K12’s shares rose 36%. However, the offering raised only about 63% of the $172.5 million sought by the company, according to their prospectus filed this summer.

For a K12 skeptic like me, this suggests the company offers not only a poor basis for school improvement but also a dubious business model.  And, apparently, I wasn't the only one not calling my broker about K12's IPO.

UPDATE:  I should've made it clear that I've taken just an excerpt from Nancy's edbizbuzz piece.  The full piece, include an important reminder of Edison's history, is here.

UPDATE II: The Columbus (Ohio) Education Association blog thinks locally about the K12 IPO, noting that, while the Ohio version of K12, Inc. pays it teachers an average of $32,341, there is, "[n]o word on whether or not the company will share the estimated $108 million from the IPO with non-unionized Ohio teachers."