Charter school caper
Trombetta finally admits guilt, but mess remains
Pennsylvanians struggle with high property taxes, yet school districts still labor to make ends meet because of inadequate state funding and the encroachment of nontraditional charter schools. Every penny counts. By diverting public money for personal use, Nicholas Trombetta hurt the state’s schoolchildren, taxpayers, school districts and the charter school movement he helped to create.
Trombetta, founder of the Beaver County-based Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh to a count of tax conspiracy. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The U.S. attorney’s office alleged that he diverted $8 million of taxpayer money for personal use, spending the money not on education, U.S. Attorney David Hickton said, but on “condos and airplanes.” Trombetta didn’t even have the decency to fold when the jig was up. He fought the charges for three years before entering his guilty plea, wasting resources the authorities could have devoted to other cases. The case is sad partly because PA Cyber had given wind to the charter movement and brought attention to Beaver County.
Charter schools offer innovative educational opportunities that serve some students well. However, they have earned the enmity of traditional public schools by luring away their students and funding and by operating with what some regard as little oversight.
Clearly, more supervision of charters is needed. That is borne out by the Trombetta scandal and reports by state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, who has called Pennsylvania’s charter school law the worst in the nation. Among his complaints are a Lehigh County charter school’s negative portrayal of local high school students in marketing material and $2.5 million in taxpayer funds that nine charter schools have used to lease buildings from landlords tied to the schools or their leaders.
Two years ago, Mr. DePasquale called for an overhaul of charter law to make the schools more effective and accountable. It is time for the Legislature and Education Department to take a hard look at his suggestions, which mostly have fallen on deaf ears.
Improvements could help to ease school districts’ concerns about charters, give new energy to the charter movement and repair some of the damage caused by Trombetta’s callow plunder.