From the Keystone State Coalition, administered by Lawrence Feinberg:
Started in November 2010, daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 4050 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, Governor’s staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, Wolf education transition team members, superintendents, school solicitors, principals, charter school leaders, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher leaders, business leaders, faith-based organizations, labor organizations, education professors, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 regulatory agencies, professional associations and education advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Visit us on Facebook at KeystoneStateEducationCoalition
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Reprise Aug. 2017: Pa. charter schools spend millions of public dollars in advertising to attract students
Public Source By Stephanie Hacke and Mary Niederberger AUG. 29, 2017
PART OF THE SERIES The Charter Effect|
If you’re a parent, it’s likely Facebook knows it.
If you’re not happy with your child’s current school, Facebook probably knows that, too. And you are likely to be hit with paid, highly targeted ads offering alternatives. That’s why when you scroll through your news feed on Facebook you may see a sponsored photo of a wide-eyed child and parent thrilled about their tuition-free, personalized education at a Pennsylvania cyber charter school. If you pay property taxes, you likely paid for this ad campaign. See the ad on the side of the Port Authority bus that shows happy students and a message that Propel Montour High School has spaces available in grades 9 and 10. Your property taxes paid for that, too. Television ads, radio promotions, social media ads and billboards promoting cyber and brick-and-mortar charter schools are everywhere. Some charter operators pay for online keyword searches that prompt their school’s websites to show up first when a parent searches for certain terms related to charter schools or a student’s need for an alternative education setting. In the last three school years, 12 of the state’s 14 cyber charter schools spent more than $21 million combined in taxpayer dollars promoting their schools, PublicSource found through Right-to-Know requests. The Commonwealth Charter Academy spent the most of the cyber charters on advertising; it spent $3.2 million in 2015-16 and $4.4 million in 2016-17.
Blogger note: Total cyber charter tuition paid by PA taxpayers from 500 school districts for 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 was over $1.6 billion; $393.5 million, $398.8 million, $436.1 million and $454.7 million respectively.
In 2016-17, taxpayers in Senate Education Cmte Majority Chairman .@SenLangerholc’s districts had to send over $10.5.3 million to chronically underperforming cybers that their locally elected school boards never authorized. . #SB34 (Schwank) or #HB526 (Sonney) could change that.
Data source: PDE via PSBA
| Bedford Area SD | $195,903.70 |
| Blacklick Valley SD | $172,928.49 |
| Cambria Heights SD | $171,102.13 |
| Central Cambria SD | $147,481.76 |
| Chestnut Ridge SD | $334,862.00 |
| Claysburg-Kimmel SD | $108,164.64 |
| Clearfield Area SD | $847,317.65 |
| Conemaugh Valley SD | $277,810.82 |
| Curwensville Area SD | $165,465.87 |
| Dubois Area SD | $781,498.59 |
| Everett Area SD | $352,172.57 |
| Ferndale Area SD | $231,971.23 |
| Forest Hills SD | $248,609.94 |
| Glendale SD | $157,426.86 |
| Greater Johnstown SD | $2,532,971.00 |
| Harmony Area SD | $127,540.41 |
| Moshannon Valley SD | $200,674.93 |
| Northern Bedford County SD | $225,181.66 |
| Northern Cambria SD | $251,658.09 |
| Penn Cambria SD | $428,637.20 |
| Philipsburg-Osceola Area SD | $697,580.57 |
| Portage Area SD | $182,599.03 |
| Purchase Line SD | $358,211.18 |
| Richland SD | $264,415.85 |
| Tussey Mountain SD | $253,595.93 |
| West Branch Area SD | $323,061.45 |
| Westmont Hilltop SD | $0.00 |
| Windber Area SD | $467,326.78 |
| $10,506,170.33 |
Has your state senator cosponsored bipartisan SB34?
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billInfo/bill_history.cfm?syear=2019&sind=0&body=S&type=B&bn=34
Is your state representative one of the over 70 bipartisan cosponsors of HB526?
WHYY Radio Times: Cyber charter schools
Air Date: Friday June 21, 2019 10:00 am; Runtime 49:15
Guests: Margaret Raymond, Susan Spicka, David Hardy
A new study shows that many students enrolled in Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools are not getting a quality education. A quarter of Pennsylvania’s charter school students use these virtual learning programs as an alternative to attending brick-and-mortar schools. Today, we’ll hear about the damning report, the pros and cons of digital classrooms, and what the future holds for these types of programs. Joining us will be MARGARET RAYMOND, founding director of the organization, CREDO, that released the report, as well as SUSAN SPICKA of Education Voters of PA, and DAVID HARDY, executive director of Excellent Schools Pa, a school choice advocacy organization.
https://whyy.org/episodes/cyber-charter-schools-are-they-working/
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Pennsylvania is between a rock and a hard place. The overly generous reimbursement for charters, particularly cyber charters, is draining the commonwealth dry. The governor wants change, but the entrenched legislature won’t budge. The legislature remains in place largely due to gerrymandering. It is a sad catch-22 compliments of the now defunct Corbett administration.
Florida’s gift to the scam artists who run online depersonalized education programs was a requirement that every high-school student complete an online course for fulfillment of required credits toward graduation. Here’s what my students say about these courses–they are stupid but easy.
Where is your link, Bob?
Also, my son took an online geography class in 9th grade in order to take more electives (band, German, and debate). I teach geography and was helping him through the course.
He said the only thing he learned was to NEVER take another online class. My other son, who took my geography class, is far more knowledgable, even though, of course, I have taught them both at home.
Link to what? The requirement the courses? My website? Sorry, not sure which you are looking for. Link to my website: https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/
Link to my pieces about Education Deform: https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/category/ed-reform/
Fie on cyber charters! If Facebook is selling shoddy cyber charters personal data with predictive behavior algorithms for targeted advertising at parents, then the charters must be giving tax dollars to Facebook for the data, dollars that were supposed to be for students. For advertising. To maniacal monopoly, move fast and break everything and everyone Fakebook. Yuck, Zuck.