Just grab and go
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Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA) is the biggest cyber charter operating in Pennsylvania. In business since 2003, it is a huge money maker.
Cyber charters in Pennsylvania benefit from several laws. Most notably, cyber charters are paid based on the per pupil cost of the student’s “home” district; in most districts that means at least $10,000 per student, despite the fact that these online charters have far lower operating costs than brick and mortar schools. Common sense and independent studies suggest that taxpayers are overpaying for cyber charters.
That means that cyber charters have money to burn. CCA has, for instance, purchased a 140,000-square-foot former Macy’s at The Waterfront shopping complex in Homestead, PA (part is used by the charter school, and part is leased to other businesses). Education Voters of Pennsylvania also found that CCA spent approximately $19 million on marketing over a two-year period, including a float featuring Jerold the Bookworm for a Thanksgiving Parade.
Commonwealth Charter Academy, like all charter schools, gets its funding from taxpayer dollars originally intended for local school districts.
This week, Education Voters of Pennsylvania released a report critical of CCA’s use of tax dollars to provide cash reimbursements to use as field trip money. Each student, according to CCA emails, receives a up to $250 “community class” reimbursement, as well as a $200 “personal field trip” reimbursement to cover any “instructional component” of the trip. EVP found discussion on the Facebook CCA parent page about using these funds for Dave and Busters Arcade, a Motley Crue concert, Eagles tickets, and family vacations to Universal Studios and Disney.
EVP also found that CCA offers one paid field trip per month; this is part of the more than 700 field trips offered for free. Those trips include academic trips and social field trips that include petting zoos, laser tag, bowling and kayaking. Additionally, CCA provides Instructional Technology Subsidy payments to families. CCA enrolls roughly 20,000 students.
In a statement, EVP director Susan Spicka said:
It is unacceptable that while school districts are starving and property tax increases are squeezing home and business owners, cyber charter schools are so awash in excess tax money that they are using property tax dollars to pay for students’ private activities and trips and giving cash payments to families.
In a press release, CCA CEO Thomas Longnecker responded that “law requires public charter schools to provide” a complete description of “activities to be offered both online and offline” and that “CCA’s Instructional Technology Subsidy, Community Class Reimbursement, and Student Loyalty field trip programs fall squarely within what is required by law, and has been standard operating procedure at CCA for more than 15 years” and calls the EVP report “misleading and purposefully deceiving.”
While PA cyber charter law is clear that cyber charters must offer full descriptions of their offerings, it is not clear that offering field trips are a legal requirement. Some Pennsylvania cyber schools tout field trip offerings; some do not.
Longnecker’s press release mentions that CCA is independently audited. Other sources indicate that CCA has not been audited by the state for a decade. Nor does CCA have a record of academic success; for example, in 2018-2019, CCA’s 4th and 8th grade reading and math growth scores were the worst in the state.
It does make sense for cyber charter students to pursue outside activities to balance the effects of going to school by sitting at a computer. But it is worth remembering that all of these activities are paid for with public tax dollars. If the local public school district was investing in real estate, spending big bucks on marketing, and paying parents to take their families to amusement parks, it’s likely that taxpayers would have some complaints about the amount of tax dollars they were paying.
Governor Wolf has proposed some simple reform measures, including paying cyber charters a flat rate more in line with their actual costs and requiring annual audits of the schools. He has been unsuccessful in moving those through the legislature; charter advocates have fought back and charter school lobbyists, including lobbyists for cyber charters, spend a great deal of money in Harrisburg.
A report released in January of this year by Children First found that of the 27 states with cyber charters, Pennsylvania spends the most but has the “weakest systems to ensure students and taxpayers are getting their money’s worth.” Pennsylvania taxpayers paid nearly $1 billion for cyber schooling last year. Several reports suggest that the money comes from the poorest districts, and the low performance of cyber charters hurt some of the students most in need of help.
But with Governor Wolf finishing up his final term in office, Pennsylvania may have to wait to see if a new governor will move the needle on meaningful cyber charter reform.
