The news release showed up at the Idaho Statesman on Wednesday. Produced by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado, it said students from Idaho and other states enrolled in K12 Inc. virtual schools lag behind traditional students in math and reading. K12 is controversial. A for-profit education company, K12 powers the Idaho Virtual Academy, the state's oldest and largest online charter school, which served 3,000 students from 43 counties in 2011. K12 also contributed $44,000 in 2010 to Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna’s re-election campaign. The company was cofounded by William Bennett, education secretary under President Ronald Reagan. So the news release caught reporters’ attention. The Associated Press filed a story the next day that was picked up by news outlets around the state. “A new report takes aim at the nation's largest for-profit online education provider and finds students taking K12 Inc. classes in Idaho and four other states are falling more behind in math and reading than their traditional school counterparts,” the AP reported. But there was a problem: The release was wrong/Idaho Statesman. More here.

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