The Keystone Center for Charter Change at the Pennsylvania School Boards Association reprinted the following report about Pennsylvania’s low-quality cyber charters.
Pa. cyber-charter schools lead on cost; lag on results
PA Capital-Star by John L. Micek, January 28, 2022Pa. spends the most out of the 27 states that have cyber-charter schools, but gets the least return on investment, according to new research
Good Friday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
As public schools made the often-awkward pivot between in-person and online instruction during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the commonwealth’s cyber-charter schools saw their enrollment explode as parents raced to find reliable schooling for their children. In fact, the Keystone State’s 14 cyber-charter schools saw their enrollment rise from slightly more than 38,000 students in October 2019 to more than 60,000 students by October 2020, marking the largest year-over-year increase, the Post-Gazette reported last May, citing data compiled by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. By last April, that popularity showed no signs of abating, with a poll by Republican-friendly Susquehanna Polling & Research in Harrisburg showing that nearly 7 in 10 respondents to a poll of 700 Pennsylvanians supported the online programs, the Post-Gazette also reported. Despite that popularity, the online programs have come in for constant criticism by advocates for traditional public schools, who argue that the online schools aren’t worth the return on investment and that student performance suffers as a result (Obligatory Caveat: Charter schools are public schools that receive taxpayer money, but are run by private operators). A recently released report by a wing of the progressive-leaning advocacy group Children First keeps up that drumbeat of criticism, finding that, of the 27 states that authorize cyber-charter schools, Pennsylvania spends the most public money on these programs, but has the “weakest systems to ensure students and taxpayers are getting their money’s worth.”
Click here to read more.
“Pennsylvania is the cyber-charter capital of the nation, ML Wernecke, the director of the Pennsylvania Charter Performance Center, which conducted the study, said in a statement. “But given the persistent performance in cyber-charter programs, and the out-of-control pressure on local taxpayers, this is one place where it is not good to be first.”
Among its chief findings, the report notes that every one of Pennsylvania’s cyber-charter schools has “been identified as needing improvement under the state’s ESSA School Improvement and Accountability plan, placing them among the state’s lowest performing schools.”
In addition, consider the low graduation rates at Cybercharters:
Considering cyber schooling for your student? Millions in taxpayer-funded advertising notwithstanding, most Pennsylvania cyber charters have graduation rates 20 percentage points or more below statewide averages for all schools.
Keystone Center for Charter Change; PA Department of Education
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Pennsylvania has not been able to overcome its crooked legislature that created this rigged system of payment to cyber charters that have been fleecing The Commonwealth ever since. If Pennsylvanians want to restore
sane governance, people need to vote out the crooked, mostly Republicans, in the legislature.
In the spirit of reasonable governance, people in the state should vote for Fetterman over Dr. Oz, a carpetbagger TV personality. “The Philadelphia Inquirer” did a story on how Oz established his fake residency. His wife’s family are leaders in The New Church, aka the Swedenborgian Church in Bryn Athyn, PA. The church sold OZ a farmhouse and about thirty-four acres of land so Oz can pay taxes on the property as a farm instead of a single family residence. It is a tax avoidance strategy used by the wealthy. It will reduce Oz’s tax bill by about $50,000 each year. Oz paid 3.1 million for the property.https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2022/08/10/mehmet-oz-scored-50-000-annual-tax-break-his-3-1-million-montgomery-county-manor-senate/stories/202208100080
I suspect that many of the children that end up in cyber charters have parents that voted for Traitor Trump, refused to wear masks during the pandemic, and also refused vaccine protection from COVID.
It’s mostly the rural counties and those out near Pittsburgh that are red. They never recovered from the US turning the steel industry over to China and displacing Pennsylvania steel workers that were left behind thanks to NAFTA.
I agree that is probably what those people think, and I’ve read that China does sometimes sell its steel cheaper than most US compaines do, but the US still produces a lot of its own steel. The reasons most Americans that worked in that industry lost their jobs was due to automation, and not China’s competition.
“U.S. crude steel production increased 6 percent between 2017 and 2018, and further increased 2 percent from 86.6 million metric tons in 2018 to 87.9 million metric tons in 2019. Since 2009, apparent consumption (a measure of steel demand) has consistently been larger than production.”
And this: “The majority of United States’ imports of semi-finished steel came from Brazil in 2019, at 61 percent (4.3 million metric tons). Mexico and Russia were also major sources of semi-finished steel at 21 percent (1.5 million metric tons), and 10 percent (737 thousand metric tons), respectively.”
Click to access imports-us.pdf
The US doesn’t import much steel from China, but it has been very popular in the US to blame China for just about every job lost in the US manufacturing industry, even when that is not correct. Click the link and scroll down and you will learn that Canada and Brazil imported the most steel to the US. China is way down that list and isn’t even close to what the US bought from Canada and Brazil.
And the US still produces the majority of raw steel used in the US, but most of the jobs that were lost in that industry, I repeat, were to automation and technology.
https://www.ft.com/content/dec677c0-b7e6-11e6-ba85-95d1533d9a62
Of course, those facts are not going to change anyone’s opinions “that it’s China’s fault.” When it comes to blaming someone for something that’s not their fault, public school teachers in the US, and China are at the top of that list.
There’s a lot of MAGA support in the counties around Pittsburgh and in some of the northern coal mining regions of Pennsylvania. These are areas where the displaced blue collar workers live.
key understanding
Thanks for your observation about jobs lost to automation, Lloyd. I read a report by a couple economists at M.I.T. last year that proved that automation was the big culprit in job loss/dislocation and basically said, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” It’s going to get bad over the near term–the next few decades. Lots of social disruption as a result. Some hard decisions about how to deal with it.
Automation is coming for the white-collar jobs now. Who needs a lawyer when you can do a will or a corporate charter for you LLC online with a few clicks of the mouse for a fraction of the cost?
Copied and pasted from the site (no need to include the link):
Legal Zoom
Let a living will speak for you when you can’t
Take control of your health care with a living will that takes minutes to complete. Need legal help? Schedule a call with our network attorneys today. Living will starts at $39.
NOTE: The downside to this is the fact that as jobs vanish until there are not many left, there won’t be many consumers with money to buy products just for everyday life. How do people make a living, when there are way fewer jobs than people? This makes me think that the wealthiest 1% may want to get rid of the rest of us so they can have the world to themselves with all automated services that tend to them only.
Automation had always worried me. I grew up in a culture that glorified the strong man. I saw this change to a culture that glorified strong machines.
The most frequently played folk song in the 1930s was John Henry. It was so ubiquitous that Carolina sociologist Rupert Vance wrote a dissertation on its social significance.
I grew up around this generation, being agricultural and having parents older than most. But I saw society change from strong man to powerful machine. Boys in the 50s became fascinated with fast cars in town. Powerful tractors seized the imagination of boys like me in the 1970s. Computers created a new place for society to worship.
Automation causes fundamental changes in society.
Such a great, great song, that one!
You will appreciate this magnificent series, Roy! (And warm regards to you and your so-smart daughter. How’s retirement suiting you?)
https://artsandculture.google.com/story/fQUxNi54BlofKg
8-24-2022, Catholic Star Herald, “USCCB, Catholic Leaders Urge Support for Federal School Choice Bill…has 9 co-sponsors in Senate and 27 in House” (legislation- ECCA Senate bill, 4416, HR 8137)
Catholics are urged to contact their legislators. “In supporting this legislation Catholics are supporting a key part of their own parishes….”
Research found that there are parishes where more revenue is generated through vouchers than from parishioners’ donations. Btw- the Catholic Herald didn’t distinguish between conservative Catholics and all Catholics. The religious that the USCCB are targeting could be GOP- funny how the GOP promotes states rights but, not when there’s an opportunity to force taxpayers to fund their authoritarian religions. Religious organizations should be taxed.
I have students this year who’ve returned to school after spending the last two years with online charters. Those students are struggling with school phobias, anxiety disorders, and chronic absenteeism. They have not learned how to be around others their own age. They’re afraid of their peers. Their academic problems are rife, but the social disorders caused by isolation must be addressed first and there are no quick fixes. The students in online charters are going to suffer a great deal when they go out into the world, be it as children or as adults. Online charters are a monumental disaster.
Bill Gates is an exceptional guy. He doubtless is the Serena Williams of “Bad Education Ideas.” Many years ago, he gave a speech in which he noted that the costs of schools were almost entirely in a) facilities and b) salaries and that both could be almost entirely eliminated by switching to remote, computerized instruction. That’s why he spent a few million to create the Common [sic] Core [sic]–so that there would be a single national bullet list to key computerized instruction to that one could, ever the monopolist, roll out “at scale.” All of this was, of course, entirely incidental to the fact that as a computer mogul, he would make billions if schools switched to remote formats. Ha ha.
But when people tried they remote, virtual formats, there were problems. Kids were bored. They learned far, far less. They often dropped out before completing courses. In short, most would rather have dental surgery than do another set of computerized lessons and exercises. How strange! People seem to get more of in-person, interpersonal interactions than they do out of depersonalized, remote ones. And students are people. What a surprise! Well, not. You have to be way TF out on the autism spectrum or something not to grok that.
But, as we’ve all seen, utter failure, again and again, over decades, does NOTHING to deter Ed Deformers. Because they are all about accountability? Well, again, not. The Ed Deform motto seems to be “Accountability for thee and not for me.” Trillions spent on testing. No improvement in outcomes. Stop the testing because it failed? No, spend trillions more. Billions spent on remote learning. Nothing but failure in remote learning applications. Stop the remote learning because it failed? No, spend billions more.
It doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked for years. It’s never worked.
OK, so do more of it. Because, accountability!
If there were a lifetime achievement award for Bad Ideas in Education, there’s no doubt who the winner was. So, yeah. Exceptional guy.
cx: who the winner would be