enrolled students begin several grade levels behind because of an alleged failure of brick and mortar schools. Education reformers such as United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, have further stated that AYP is not an accurate measure of a school's performance and estimated that under NCLB, as many as "82 percent of America's schools could be labeled 'failing'". A paper by Yale students found "With no exceptions, students enrolled in K12 schools performed worse in math than their district and state counterparts. With only one exception, they performed worse in English and language arts" The press and politicians have been equally critical. A 2012 PolitiFact.com article noted K12's poor performance in Tennessee. The New York Times investigated K12 and concluded that the company squeezes profits from public school funding by raising enrollment, increasing teacher workload, and lowering standards. The Washington Post raised similar issues. K12 defends its position, describing its student base as "at risk" to begin with. Lobbying efforts The New York Times wrote that K12's profits are used to pay for advertising and lobbying state officials. K12 spent $26.5M on advertising in 2010 and the company and its employees contributed nearly $500,000 to state political candidates from 2004 to 2010. K12 has contributed money to organizations like Pennsylvania Families for Public Cyber Schools, which lobbied for online schools. In Ohio, an organization founded by a K12 official hired temp agency workers to demonstrate with signs against state representative Steven Dryer, who challenged their funding. Ransomware attack In November, 2020, Stride was attacked by Ryuk ransomware criminals, rendering some of Stride's records inaccessible and leading to the threatened release of students' personal information. The company paid an undisclosed ransom amount, saying, "Based on the specific characteristics of the case, and the guidance we have received about the attack and the threat actor, we believe the payment was a reasonable measure to take in order to prevent misuse of any information the attacker obtained". See also Virtual school Charter schools in the United States Connections Academy References External links Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies based in Fairfax County, Virginia Curricula Education companies of the United States American educational websites Education management organizations Education companies established in 2000 American companies established in 2000 2000 establishments in Virginia Charter management organizations 2007 initial public offerings