LANCASTER, April 25 – The PA House Education Committee convened the first hearing in a statewide tour today to discuss cyber charter oversight and accountability.

“Today, we kicked off a series of meetings to have an honest and open discussion on Pennsylvania’s cyber charters as the recent Auditor General’s report on cyber charters has raised some serious questions and concerns,” said Schweyer, D-Lehigh, Majority Chair of the House Education Committee. “It is my hope that these hearings can both educate Pennsylvanians on cyber charter schools and lead to increased transparency and accountability for these online institutions.”

The hearing at Lincoln Middle School in Lancaster focused on student outcomes and academic performances of Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools. Testifiers included representatives from the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, Education Voters of Pennsylvania, school district officials and administrators with Commonwealth Charter Academy.

“The performance of Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools continues to lag far behind that of traditional public schools and brick-and-mortar charter schools,” said Dr. Sherri Smith, Executive Director, PASA. “As a state, we should be very concerned about the ongoing issue of low performance and participation compliance of cyber charter schools.”

According to Schweyer, two more hearings are planned for this cyber charter statewide tour. The next hearing will be next week in Johnstown and the final hearing will be on the following week in Stroudsburg. Additional details on those hearings will be forthcoming.  

Full testimony as well as photos and video of the full hearing will be available here.

Information provided to TVL by:
Thomas LeClair