The first cyber charter school in Pennsylvania was founded by former superintendent Nicholas Trombetta. It was called the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. It became a booming business, enrolling 10,000 students and collecting about $10,000 for each of them in state tuition. Now there are more than a dozen cyber charters operating in the state. The state, under former Governor Tom Corbett, drafted a very generous payment to these virtual schools, and they are big money-makers. Studies have shown that their academic results are worse than traditional public schools or brick-and-mortar charter schools.
In 2012, the FBI raided Trombetta’s offices, and in 2013, he was indicted for alleged embezzlement of millions of dollars. It seems he set up numerous for-profit and nonprofit businesses to provide goods and services to the cyber charter.
While Trombetta awaits trial, the school continues to do business. The state’s Auditor General announced that he will audit the business to learn where the state’s money is going.
Another cyber charter founder, June Brown, was also indicted for theft of millions of dollars. She too is awaiting trial. She ran the Agora Cyber Charter School, which was part of the K12 Inc. empire of virtual charters. The board voted to sever its relationship with K12 Inc.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Pennsylvania is under-rated for awful charter school governance. So is Michigan. Ohio gets all the press, but really this is big problem that spans several huge states. Oh, well. Stay the course! Open more and more!
I see Illinois as the next big charter disaster state. That’s my market prediction, so invest accordingly. The states in the middle of the country are really getting screwed with this dogma.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/05/20/a-dozen-problems-with-charter-schools/
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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As I always say, the situation may be worse. We just don’t know about it-yet. That’s why charter schools (or whatever name they choose to go by) don’t want to be scrutinized. The reformers defend this by saying they need more “flexibility” and blame the unions. Same old song. Meanwhile, dollars intended for students are being absconded.
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The sad part is that the states and feds keep throwing money at them without accountability, and the taxpayers keep paying for all the mismanagement.http://populardemocracy.org/news/report-millions-dollars-fraud-waste-found-charter-school-sector
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When it comes to online learning, I’m a Luddite and proud of it.
““Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.”
― Jacques Barzun
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Does that mean you feel it is ok for virtual operators to embezzle large amounts of money and produce very poor results?
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Bruce, I don’t understand your question. What about Zulma’s comment would make you think s/he supports virtual operators?
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Dr. Ravitch, have you received my certified mailing (dated 10/31/15) sent to your NYU address regarding Cyber Charter Schools in Pennsylvania and Pearson? In late August, one of these cyber charter schools received a “cease & desist” order from the PA Dept of Education. Since then, all PA cyber charter schools have been informed of the issues involved in this order. I have not received a receipt for the delivery of my certified mailing to you.
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No, Pam, I have not received it. I don’t have an office at NYU. They forward my mail. It takes weeks.
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Can you send me your private address or email address to my email address? After the Thanksgiving holiday, I’d like to send my mailing re: PA cyber charters and Pearson to you again at an address that will work! There’s too much to post on a blog. Thanks,
Pam
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Another 25 million goes out in Ohio to build new charter schools with little or no oversight or transparency.
Meanwhile, half the public school districts in the state lost funding under ed reform “movement” leadership in the Kasich Administration and the legislature. The lack of support for public schools isn’t representative of the voters in this state, who approved 85% of local tax initiatives to fund public schools in November. The state cuts funding for local schools and the people who use the schools then vote to replace it with local funding. Why the disconnect between politicians and their constituents?
ftp://ftp.osfc.ohio.gov/Communications/Public_Records_Requests/Community%20school%20classroom%20facilities%20grants.pdf
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I can’t help but wonder what happens to the info the FBI obtains when they raid these “schools”. They were in Indiana a while back (months, years?) to take records from those Gulen schools. I never learned what it was that was obtained and who the information went to. Would there ever be any information transferred to the Dept of Ed letting them know of the purpose of the raids and what is found? I have noticed that when the FBI has set up these raids in various locations in the state that the media eventually shares what it was they were looking for, if they found it and what charges to the resident or business. There have been a wide variety of these in the state with high publicity, media stake outs, helicopter video. Yet nothing ever seemed to come of that Gulen school raid. Why is that?
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