Charter school reform is needed now

The guest commentary “Cyber charters offer choices in education” (Daily Local News, Aug. 29, 2022) might be more convincing if it could be titled “Cyber charters offer excellent education.” But it can’t; it talks a lot about choice but doesn’t discuss the quality of what families are asked to choose.

In fact, cyber charter students perform over 20 percent below public school students on standardized tests (PA Charter Change). There are some valid reasons for students to attend cyber schools, but overall education quality is not one of them. And from the taxpayers’ point of view, there is a lot else to worry about.

As the Daily Local’s own July 8 editorial “Charter school reform long overdue” notes, “Pennsylvania has the highest cyber charter school enrollment in the country” and PA school districts’ legally mandated payments to cyber charters increased by half in 202021, to over $1 billion. That same year, PA’s 14 statewide cyber charters’ unrestricted surpluses more than doubled to $164 million (Children First).

Charters receive taxpayer money but are privately managed, can buy and sell real estate, and often contract out their services to organizations of unvetted backgrounds. Since they act like businesses, they can close suddenly and leave students stranded, such as happened due to quality and safety problems at Daroff Charter School in Philadelphia on Friday, just before classes were to start on Monday (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Like businesses, charters also spend to increase their clientele; cyber charters invest $35 million a year on advertising and marketing. The school of which the guest editorialist is CEO had so much surplus cash that it was rewarding its students’ families with cash payments totaling $600 a year (Education Voters of PA).

Why should taxpayers care? Cyber schools, which usually don’t maintain actual school buildings, do indeed drain resources away from public schools. There is no use saying public schools save when their students go elsewhere; how is a given school going to save on two extra seats in an English or math class?

And cybers are reimbursed by a fixed formula, often for more than their real expenses. The West Chester Area School District estimates that its taxpayers would save $1.7 million a year if it paid cyber schools for special education students on the basis of relevant costs rather than as a predetermined flat rate.

As the Daily Local News concluded on July 8, it’s definitely time for charter school reform.