Changes needed to charter school law

State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale didn’t mince words last week when he released a scathing 95-page audit report of the Midlandbased Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. His message was clear: The state’s charter school law needs to be reformed immediately.

“It should be a clarion call to change the law to make sure that this type of nonsense doesn’t happen again,” DePasquale told The Times.

The “nonsense” he cited in the audit, which covered from May 2011 to March 2016, included numerous administrative failings, multiple conflicts of interest and a culture that enriched a favored few— all of which traced back to PA Cyber founder Nick Trombetta, who left the school in 2012. Trombetta was indicted by a federal grand jury on several charges in 2013 and is now awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last month to tax conspiracy as a part of scheme that involved funneling more than $8 million to a company he created to mask earnings from the IRS.

Although Trombetta was not actively involved in PA Cyber’s operation after leaving in 2012, much of the audit findings point to his actions while in charge, including creating multiple spin-off companies and holding overlapping roles in them. All the while, the money that came pouring into PA Cyber as it continued to grow found its way to those other companies in one form or another.

PA Cyber’s board president, Brian Hayden, was quick to point out that the school has tried to distance itself from Trombetta and that much has changed in the way things are handled.

“This is not the same organization as it was under Nick Trombetta. It is not,” Hayden told The Times. “We’re learning. We’re trying, and we’re really committed to moving away from those bad practices.”

Even state Rep. Jim Marshall, R-14, Big Beaver, took exception to the number of references to Trombetta in the audit findings, calling DePasquale’s public display in Harrisburg “a little bit theatrical” and defending his legislative colleagues who he said are serious about charter school reform.

While we acknowledge that the current PA Cyber board and management shouldn’t be blamed for the past dealings by Trombetta, our bigger concern is that serious accountability issues remain and it is up to the state Legislature to correct them.

DePasquale’s audit did not find anything that might lead to criminal charges, but there are a host of ethical questions that remain because of the shortcomings in the state’s charter school law.

For example, take the makeup of the PA Cyber board of directors, whose members are all appointed. DePasquale noted that over a three-year period, every vote taken passed unanimously. Is anyone naïve enough to believe that might happen in a traditional public school district where board members are elected and held accountable to the public?

Likewise, look at where the money goes from PA Cyber, which has annual revenues of more than $100 million. Trombetta created the National Network of Digital Schools, which has since changed its name to Lincoln Learning Solutions, to provide curriculum and management services for PA Cyber. About 90 percent of Lincoln Learning’s revenue comes from PA Cyber, and while PA Cyber is a public school and subject to the open records laws of the state, Lincoln Learning is a private entity and required to reveal nothing about how taxpayer money coming from the school is spent.

All of which points back to the gray areas and loopholes in the state charter school law that Trombetta took advantage of and still exist.

Gov. Tom Wolf has already established a new division within the Department of Education that is responsible for improving the accountability and quality of charter schools. And Marshall said charter school reform will likely be a priority in the next legislative session.

The bottom line is that cyber charter schools serve a valuable purpose in 21st century public education, but public confidence in the system needs to be restored. It’s up to the Legislature and the governor to see that it happens.