Steven Singer says that 10 of Pennsylvania’s 15 cybercharters are operating without acharter. They have expired. This is a scandal-ridden sector that makes big profits but supplies a 9th-rate education for gullible children and families. None has ever met state standards. They should all be closed down.
They get full tuition and supply a computer and online instruction.
Scam. Rip-off.
The founder of Pennsylvania’s largest cybercharter was convicted of tax evasion for failing to report the $8 million he embezzled.
Too much money and no accountability.
Close them all.
Rhese fraudulent “schools” drain money from public schools in the state:
Cyber charter drain on Pa districts
| Cyber Charter Name | 2016-17 Enrollment | 2016-17 Revenue from other LEAs |
| Central PA Digital Learning Foundation CS | 199 | $2,593,901 |
| Commonwealth Charter Academy CS | 9,008 | $116,686,603 |
| PA Distance Learning CS | 681 | $8,751,302 |
| Reach Cyber CS | 714 | $10,000,219 |
| Susq-Cyber CS | 97 | $1,064,230 |
| Pennsylvania Virtual CS | 2,299 | $27,814,441 |
| 21st Century Cyber CS | 964 | $12,683,880 |
| PA Leadership CS | 2,361 | $34,051,813 |
| Achievement House CS | 458 | $7,157,951 |
| Agora Cyber CS | 5,883 | $91,689,396 |
| Esperanza Cyber CS | 174 | $2,215,660 |
| ACT Academy Cyber CS | 146 | $1,584,130 |
| Pennsylvania Cyber CS | 9,723 | $134,280,454 |
| ASPIRA Bilingual Cyber CS | 261 | $4,178,502 |
| Statewide Totals | 32,968 | $454,752,482 |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Don;t know what is happening in other states, but these are often used, here in Florida, for credit recovery. I would much rather see that done in summer school classes with teachers in classrooms.
And how many of their “virtual” students actually read, do the assignments, and learn? Isn’t the graduation rate of these not-a-school schools almost a negative number?
Cybercharters are the perfect escape route for kids that don’t want to go to school and/or the parent and/or guardians are a fundamentalist not-a-Christian Christians that wants to keep their children home where they can brainwash them like the Koch brothers did to their children.
For instance, I read a media interview with Charles Koch’s oldest son Chase, and he said at twelve, his dad Charles made his children watch films about the glories of libertarianism and trickle-down economics. Now Chase is taking over the Kochtopus to keep it going for a few more decades.
Pennsylvania desperately needs money to operate brick and mortar schools. It should be an easy decision to close these wasteful, unproductive establishments unless somebody in commonwealth is ensuring they stay open as part of a pay to play scheme.
Wolf needs to wake up and get rid of Corbett’s cronies in decision making positions. Republicans immediately replace key people when they win an election. Wolf should do his job.
“Legislation introduced by an influential Republican state senator would require charter schools to disclose more about their finances. But the bill contains a large loophole that would allow the state’s biggest chains like Basis Charter Schools and Great Hearts Academies to avoid revealing how they spend their money.”
I don ‘t understand why this is still acceptable in ed reform.
They don’t reveal how they spend public funds. There is no other public entity in ANY sector that gets away with this, but charters do.
DC charters, which are supposedly an ed reform miracle success story, don’t reveal what they pay teachers and they only reveal salaries for the TOP FIVE employees.
How can they possibly justify this secrecy? EVERY PENNY should be revealed. I want to see statements like I see on my public schools website, where I can click on a link and see the expenditures down to cents. That’s the minimum.
“Brophy McGee acknowledged, however, that her bill would not prevent charter chains from giving large, no-bid management or construction contracts to their founders. Nor would it prevent charter CEOs from paying themselves exorbitant amounts, as Primavera online charter Chief Executive Damian Creamer did by receiving $10.1 million from the school over the past two years.
Brophy McGee called millionaire charter school “outliers.”
That’s the standard? The private contractors ripping off taxpayers aren’t a numerical majority so therefore no one should know about it and they’ll encourage it to continue?
There goes the entire justification for any transparency or oversight of ANY public funds.
Most public schools don’t steal money intended for students. Some do! But not most. Therefore, under ed reform logic, there shouldn’t be any reporting or audits.
Ed reformers complain about teachers contracts, but the reason they can complain about teachers contracts is THEY KNOW what’s in them.
They have no earthly idea what’s in a charter contract. No one does. It’s a secret.
They use stats collected by teachers unions to measure public school teacher infractions and disciplinary actions. They don’t have ANY comparable information collected on charter teachers, which in their wacky world means there are NO problems with charter teachers.
Go find me how many charter teachers were fired for misconduct in any given city. Who collects that information? It’s not even comparing apples and oranges. It’s comparing apples to nothing.
It’s even worse in the private schools they’re all promoting. There’s NO information on that taxpayer supported contractor.
crucial truth: “comparing apples to nothing…”
It’s shocking to me that this is almost half a billion dollars of taxpayer money. Wow.