THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT: K12, an online charter school provider, held its annual investor meeting December 16 to disastrous results. Investors voted down the company's plan for executive pay, and teachers unions and representatives from K12's own schools protested outside the meeting. Advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co. advised shareholders to vote against the pay proposal because of a "substantial disconnect between compensation and performance results," Buzzfeed News reports. K12's stock is down 75 percent from a high in 2013.
K12 is faced with damning evidence. A 2015 report found that students enrolled in K12's schools and other online charters did not measure up to their peers at offline schools. California's attorney general Kamala Harris has also opened an investigation into K12's practices. As for the executive pay, K12 paid CEO Nathaniel Davis $5.33 million and its chief financial officer $3.6 million in 2015.
