Pennsylvania has an outdated charter school law that funds charter schools generously. For a long time, the legislature was controlled by Republicans whose billionaire donors wanted to encourage charter schools and defund public schools. The state is also extravagant in funding virtual charter schools, many of which operate for profit. All the virtual charters are low-performing.
The Keystone Center for Charter Change, established by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, has led a campaign to revise the charter law, especially the funding formula. 89% of the school districts in the state have joined their program for reform.
.@PennsManor Area SD becomes Pennsylvania’s 445th locally elected, volunteer board of school directors to pass a resolution calling upon the General Assembly to pass charter reform.
Keystone Center for Charter Change Website
More than 440 school districts have adopted a resolution calling upon the General Assembly to meaningfully reform the existing flawed charter school funding system to ensure that school districts and taxpayers are no longer overpaying or reimbursing charter schools for costs they do not have. The map and list below will show which school districts have approved a resolution.
If your school board has not yet adopted a resolution, you can find a copy of the resolution and instructions on how to submit the resolution after adoption below.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It is smart for school districts to unite to pressure the Commonwealth to take their concerns seriously. For years Gov. Wolf tried in vain to change the unfair charter reimbursement rules, but he was blocked by the right wing in the legislature. Public school parents should also organize and call for change. The unfair charter laws are damaging the quality of the public schools and costing residents more in property taxes. Governor Shapiro will be more willing to listen when he realizes that there is widespread support for ending these corrupt fees that do nothing to improve education in Pennsylvania. The charter lobby knows the power of collectivism. Public schools need more organized, politically active groups behind them as well. “The squeaky wheel gets the oil.”
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Wolf is a wolf.
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This is great news! Pennsylvania is home to Fetullah Gulen. The Gulen movement runs one of the largest groups of charter schools in the US.
The Gulen charter schools are responsible for a lot of US taxpayer money going abroad.
Last July a free ebook (and hardcover version) was published by a law firm about the Gulen movement. It’s called “Web of Influence “. I have not read it yet, so don’t know how good it is.
The Gulen charter schools in St Louis used to be sponsored by Lindenwood university, a rather conservative business friendly small university. Even that charter friendly university stopped sponsoring the Gateway Science Academy Gulen schools. Now they are sponsored by the sponsor of last resort, the Missouri Charter Public School Commission.
The local St Louis media gave no coverage when Midwest regional Gulen charter school chain, of which the Gateway Science Academy is a part plead guilty to the Federal Justice department for financial crime and paid a 4.5 million dollar fine.
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Even Republican Conservatives recognize fairness and when voter dollars are being misused. Just spell it all out. Gulen charters do not fare well, and we do not like our money going out of country. I am from St Louis–Lindenwood University knows what it is doing.
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How about defund the crooked, i.moral indoctrinating public schools? I pulled my children out of public school. They’re in charter. You wanna pay for mine yo go to private if charter schools are done away with? If I wanted them in public, they’d be in public.
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*immoral
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Hello Jessica You speak about your specific situation of public vs charter schools for your children; and I cannot speak to those specifics because I haven’t experienced them and, in any specific situation, either can be better than the other about educating your specific children.
On the other hand, many of the discussions here and elsewhere concern larger movements that concern who and what kinds of organizations (public or private) develop and have authority over (1) curriculum, e.g., what is taught and how it is presented; (2) funding; and (3) who can and cannot attend and partake of that curriculum.
And so, with the larger picture in mind, the larger question becomes, in this democracy, who and what entity runs the show?
Do you want unelected corporations and CEO’s in control who have little or no public oversight or accountability (by you and other members of the public and who BTW do not gain financially from educating your children) . . .or to have unfettered control over the education of your children . . . and where, at some point, you lose your choice to go back to public education?
Also, are charter teachers professionals who come from accredited schools and programs and who are in constant communication with research institutions and movements of thought in the human sciences; and if so, what is to say that changes won’t be made arbitrarily if the CEO decides that professionals are too expensive?
OR do you want your children’s education to be administered by people who are elected by the public (you and me) to “people” public/government institutions and are charged with good fiscal management, who are beholden to legislation and laws, and who are accountable to the constituents who elected them for the decisions they make about, for instance, teacher professionalism and the education of your children?
In any case, your particular situation, good or bad, is only particular. It incrementally feeds into but cannot address the whole movement where, in our case, people with scads of money are hijacking OUR governmental institutions, bribing officials, and trying to privatize everything that belongs to “the people” (as in: public schools) for their, and not our benefit.
Small and specific changes and controls may seem insignificant but easily lead to larger and more comprehensive ones. Education of your children is the least of privatizers’ concerns though, in specific cases, it’s to their advantage, and not to the voting public or to democracy, that you think otherwise.
If I might offer a personal thought: in my view, sending taxpayer money to private institutions who up front defy and deny accountability is already a situation that is covered with red flags. Do you really trust CEO’s to put your children’s education on the top of their list of concerns? CBK
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