From Education Voters of Pennsylvania (http://www.educationvoterspa.org/):
It is an exciting time for public education advocates who support charter and cyber charter school reforms that will benefit students and taxpayers in Pennsylvania.
In mid-August, Governor Wolf put forward strong proposals to improve the quality, transparency, and accountability of Pennsylvania’s charter schools and to control costs and improve outcomes for students.
His proposals include new commonsense regulations that will be developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE). Among other things, these will aim to help prevent discrimination in charter school admissions and enrollment, hold charter schools and their management companies to the same transparency standards as school districts, and establish requirements for charter to document their costs to prevent them from overcharging taxpayers and districts.
Education stakeholders are encouraged to submit comments to inform the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s proposed regulations at: Office of the Secretary, 333 Market St., 10th Floor, Harrisburg, PA 17126.
Legislation will be needed to address thornier issues such as funding for charter schools. Fortunately, we are seeing positive movement on that front, as well.
On August 14th, the Senate Education Committee, chaired by Senator Wayne Langerholc, held a public hearing on charter school funding issues in Everett, PA. During this hearing, much of the testimony focused on cyber charter schools. Four superintendents gave powerful testimonyabout the need to end enormous overpayments to cyber charter schools that are not held accountable for providing students with a quality education under current law.
Testimony that stood out included this from Dr. Mark Kudlawiec, the superintendent of the Chestnut Ridge School District:
At Chestnut Ridge, we run a cyber program that holds students accountable, that encourages them to attend and participate in school functions and activities, can custom blend your child’s curriculum to fit their daily educational needs, and most importantly, truly care about the overall wellness and success of your child. Do you think that Commonwealth Connections Academy* cares about your child’s success? Last year, I had a student attend Commonwealth Connections Academy, and after that student missed 108 days, they were finally dropped from their rolls and dropped out of school entirely. However, my district did receive a bill for an estimated $8,000 for that child, and I ask you for what?
Superintendents from every corner of Pennsylvania have shared stories of student failure in cyber charter schools that are similar to the one told by Dr. Kudlawiec. And these stories are backed up by data. Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools graduate just 33%-70% of their students, and taxpayers spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year for this failure.
It is past time for state lawmakers to take action and enact meaningful reforms this fall.
We are grateful for the leadership of Governor Wolf as well as Senate Education Committee chairman Senator Wayne Langerholc and House Education Committee chairman Representative Curtis Sonney on the cyber charter school funding issue.
We are also grateful for you and your steadfast advocacy with state lawmakers. It is your drive to see every Pennsylvania child has access to well-funded, quality public education that has kept this issue alive and built the momentum for charter school reform that we see today.
Not surprisingly, the charter industry and special interests that support the privatization of our public schools are pushing back hard against any proposal that would reduce massive overpayments to cyber charter schools or increase accountability to make them do a better job educating students.
Lobbyists for these special interests will swarm the Capitol when lawmakers return to Harrisburg this fall. They will try to pressure lawmakers in leadership to block votes on meaningful charter school reform legislation. They will also visit rank-and-file lawmakers and pressure them to oppose any charter school reforms.
As we move forward, we need you to stay the course and continue doing what you are really good at—standing up for policies that will strengthen Pennsylvania’s public schools.
Stay tuned and thank you for your support of public education.
PS: This is a good op-ed from The Morning Call, “Paul Muschick: Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools perform poorly and are overpaid. So why do we put up with them?”
*Commonwealth Connections Academy recently changed its name to Commonwealth Charter Academy.
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