Guest Commentary: Tight State Budgets Make Cyber Charter Schools Easy Targets

James Hanak is the CEO of Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School in West Chester. Virtual education leaders like Hanak are on the front lines of the battle over state funding and K-12 online courses.

"In recent months, conversations surrounding the funding of Pennsylvania’s 12 cyber charter schools have reached a fever pitch, not only in Harrisburg, but across the commonwealth,' Hanak wrote for PennLive.com.
"Though this type of charter school represents the only true public school choice for all 1.87 million K-12 students in Pennsylvania, cyber charter schools have undeservedly drawn heavy criticism and found themselves on the funding chopping block," he continued.
"The common thread of criticism from the Pennsylvania School Board Association, teachers unions and increasingly from individual school districts is that the school district has no oversight or knowledge of the inner workings of the cyber charter schools that take away students and money.
"In a time of tight budgets and subsidy cuts from the state, superintendents are looking for ways to generate additional income. As a result, Pennsylvania cyber charter schools have become an easy target," he added.
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Guest Commentary: Commnwealth Foundation CEO Says Schools in Pennsylvania Prove Competition Works

The Allentown Morning Call recently published an op-ed written by Matthew J. Brouillette, president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation, a Pennsylvania-based free-market think tank
In the article headlined, "Competition for Students Will Improve Education," Brouillette wrote, "In Pennsylvania, family demand for spots in cyber schools has skyrocketed, with enrollment exploding from zero students a decade ago to nearly 28,000 today. In response, several school districts now offer their own online learning programs. Cyber schools, charter schools and scholarships funded by businesses are restoring opportunity and a future for children once left behind."
"Instead of a one-size-fits-all system of education," he continued, "we need to fully embrace an education marketplace where choice and competition is the rule rather than the exception."

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Guest Commentary: Thoughts from the Virtual Graduating Class of 2011

William Cattron, a PA Cyber Charter graduating senior, was chosen as the senior speaker for the Western Graduation ceremony.
Nearly 1,500 students graduated from PA Cyber Charter School this year. In his speech, Cattron characterized his fellow grads as a " graduating class that has taken advantage of a cutting edge education."
"Seek out the opportunities that are there for your special talent and go live an exceptional life—a life with purpose and meaning. Show the world what we PA Cyber graduates have and can accomplish. We have not and will not be assembly lined—our individual differences are what make us strong. These individual differences will make us successful," Cattron urged his classmates.
"My family and I continued with PA Cyber because we learned that it had a better math and science curriculum and I had greater access to college classes while still in high school. I’ve enjoyed my college classes and my PA Cyber virtual classes, especially the interaction with the other students and teachers," he continued. "Thank you PA Cyber for helping me fulfill my high school dreams and preparing me to achieve my college dreams."
Click here to read Cattron's entire speech.

Guest Commentary: Pa. Auditor Gen. 'Why I Want a Moratorium on New Cyber Charter Schools'

Pennsylvania State Auditor Gen. Jack Wagner stunned his state this fall when he said there should be a moratorium on creation of cyber-charter and charter schools until a new state funding system is in place.
According to Wagner, the current funding system has serious inequities in how tax money is used to finance these public school alternatives.
Leading Pennsylvania educators were quick to defend--and denounce--Wagner's proposal.
Ron Sofo — superintendent of Freedom Area School District — said “in tough economic times — when everybody’s scraping to get by — you have to find a system that’s more fiscally responsible to everyone.”
Nick Trombetta — chief executive officer at the Midland-based Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School — said the present system “expects us to do as much (as a public school) with less (money per student) — and we’ve been doing a reasonably good job with it at PA Cyber — so I don’t see where we’re the problem."
In an op-ed published in the Philadelphia Daily News, Wagner explained his stand. "If you have a drafty home, you know it's smarter and cheaper to fix the broken window than to turn up the thermostat to stay warm," Wagner wrote.
"That's just common sens, and it's the same approach I've taken to fixing Pennsylvania's broken system for funding charter and cyber-charter schools, whose cost has risen at an unsustainable rate over the last four years to nearly $1 billion a year."
Click here to read all of Wagner's article.