Lawmakers should stand up for charter students

I am a true believer in traditional public education. My father taught in California’s public school system for 30 years, and I attended traditional public schools myself. But I chose a different avenue for my son: cyber school.

Surprised? Let me explain. My son is a special needs child with Autism and ADHD who was both suffering and failing to learn in our local district school.

In a traditional classroom with 20 children, he just couldn’t focus on his schoolwork. Due to his major audio sensitivities, classroom noises we all take for granted — fluorescent lights humming, chairs and desks scraping the floor, and students talking — made focusing on what the teacher was saying impossible at times. He was frightened and overstimulated to the point of immobility by things like fire drills and noisy students on the bus.

My son is bright but isn’t a fast worker. So, he was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of homework assigned by the school. After school he had zero free time to just be a kid. Almost every day he’d get upset when he got off the bus, knowing he’d be trying to finish homework until 9 or 10 at night. He felt like he couldn’t possibly succeed, hated school, and wasn’t interested in learning.

I was devastated and desperate for options. That’s why my husband and I tried something different.

Three years ago, we started my son at cyber school, using the services of PA Distance Learning Cyber Charter School in our own home. It was hard for me to tell my father about this decision: charter schools have always been the “enemy,” and now his own grandson was attending one.

But the results have been worth it.

I’ve seen my son grow from a kid who was terrified of school to a happy and independent 15 year old. About once a month, our cyber school offers field trips which he enjoys. He loves going outside and doing fun things with his neighborhood friends, now that he isn’t confined by hours of homework every night.

In terms of learning outcomes, my son went from continually failing to becoming a successful student! He has been on the honor roll every semester since switching to cyber school.

Last fall, another cyber school, Commonwealth Charter Academy, found 64 percent of their kids (many of them new students) were one year behind in math. Since the cyber charter model allows teachers more flexibility to customize lessons, by the spring, proficiency improved by 24 percent.

Across the state, 140,000 students attend charter schools. Of that number, about 30,000 students attend cyber charter schools, including more than 8,500 students in Montgomery and Chester counties.

But the schooling alternative that worked for my son, and for so many others, is under threat in Harrisburg.

Gov. Tom Wolf recently proposed charter school cuts, enrollment caps, and a ban on new cyber schools. That will be devastating for charter school students and those on waiting lists hoping to get into one—those lists include 30,000 students in Philadelphia alone.

Punitive policies will do nothing to improve the quality of education in Pennsylvania. But it may keep struggling students, like my son, from finding the school that helps them thrive.

I can’t sit back and allow that to happen. That’s why I’m raising my voice and urging state lawmakers to stand up for charter school kids across the commonwealth and reject the governor’s attacks on charters. I think I can speak for all charter school parents when I say this: Our kids don’t deserve to be treated like second class citizens.