Cyber charter schools: fail

[Hannah Bell]

Cyber schools come under fire from public school districts, officials
Sunday, February 28, 2010

By DOUGLAS B. BRILL
The Express-Times

Northampton County's school districts already were fed up by 2001 -- the year a state appellate court ruled cyber schools are charter schools that public school districts must fund.

It would be another two years until Einstein Academy, Pennsylvania's first cyber school, closed over allegations it billed for students who did not attend the school -- creating a baseline for critics who say cyber schools aren't accountable for the public money they receive.

But the Bethlehem and Pen Argyl Area school boards already were convinced cyber schools got more public money than they deserved. Both boards resolved unsuccessfully in 2001 to stop paying cyber schools.

Cyber schools have mostly failed to meet No Child Left Behind standards, meanwhile, and recent allegations of financial mismanagement have provided new ammunition for those who say cyber schools need to be held to stiffer standards.

"Finding out where cyber school money goes is a travesty," said Joseph Boyle, president of the Bangor Area School Board, which faces a $2.1 million 2010-11 budget shortfall.

Boyle is quick to note the district expects to pay cyber schools more than $1.1 million next school year...

State-chartered cyber schools are private, nonprofit organizations that provide online educations for children. They are funded by tax money that otherwise would be dedicated to public school districts.

Under traditional funding, a district receives a set amount of state money for each of its students. But when a student opts for cyber school, three-quarters of the student's subsidy is paid to the cyber school instead.

This school year, Northampton County's eight school districts expected to pay cyber schools $4.96 million to educate an estimated 587 students.

Only one of the state's 11 chartered cyber schools met No Child Left Behind standards during the 2008-09 school year, the most recent school year for which statistics are available.

Every school district in Northampton County met the standards.


http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/news/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1267333521170220.xml&coll=3&thispage=2

[jody]

1. Why didn't the Northampton County's school district board just refuse to approve cyber schools if

they did not meet the board's criteria?

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Charters are approved by the state

not the local school district.

[jody]

5. Not in all states. One PA source says "Currently only local school boards may authorize charter

schools and the state board may approve on appeal."

ON EDIT ADD
I believe in this case the state approves "cyber schools" statewide so local school districts are cut out of the approval and perhaps even authority to oversee quality of education.

[jody]

9. Alabama's public schools offer courses via Distance Learning aka Virtual aka cyber ala online

and independent assessments are promising for a start up program.

Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators & Students Statewide

Outside Evaluator at http://accessdl.state.al.us/OutsideEvaluator.html gives an independent assessment of the program for three separate reporting periods.

[jody]

10. Finally found a cite "School boards, and the Pennsylvania Department of Education for virtual school

[Hannah Bell]

11. you seem to have cut off your post without the cite?

[jody]

12. Sorry about that. See below

http://www.charterschoolresearch.com/laws/pennsylvania.htm

ON EDIT ADD:

PA Dept of Education source Cyber Charter Schools

[Hannah Bell]

13. did you notice:

"Applications denied by the school board may be appealed to the state Charter Schools Appeals Board and their decision is final."


also, do you think 3/4 of regular per-pupil funding for a cyber school is "inequitable"?

no physical building, no transportation, no sports, no school lunches, less paperwork, fewer real teachers: 5 million for 600 students ?

[jody]

15. Only my opinion, I've taught online college courses and I did not find most students ready or

qualified to take my course.

RE: "3/4 of regular per-pupil funding for a cyber school is "inequitable"?"

IMO a student qualified to take an online course should be able to find an accredited public education site somewhere in the world and take any course for a very, very modest cost. That may, with lots of personal reservations, be suitable as long as a student is required to take at least one comprehensive exam in a proctored environment.

RE: "no physical building, no transportation, no sports, no school lunches, less paperwork, fewer real teachers: 5 million for 600 students ?"

IMO someone is ripping off the taxpayers.

[Hannah Bell]

17. thanks. i agree.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. Just another rip-off. And the O administration keeps pumping this shit?

:puke:

I can't even begin to describe how much I hate, loathe, and despise charter schools, with "cyber" charter schools getting an extra dose of HLD.

:puke: again.



TG

[Hannah Bell]

4. 3/4 of regular funding & no infrastructure, no transportation, no school lunch service, no sports --

someone's making a mint.

nearly $5 million for 600 students.

[Tansy_Gold]

7. Yeah. "Imagine" that.

Pun intended, of course, since Imagine charter schools are funneling their funds directly to their for-profit parent company, then going into horrendous debt, and then being bailed out by. . . us.

Oh, yeah, have I mentioned I hate charter schools?



Tansy Gold

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Didn't Rick Santorum try to get PA to pay for his kids to do a cyber charter?

And they weren't even living in PA?

[napi21]

8. You beat me to it! He's the first pperson I thought of when I read

this post! Ricky enrolledhis kids in a Penn Hills cyber school while they ere living in Va! I know Penn Hills sued him & got some of their money back, but I never heard how much of it.

[warm regards]

14. So try something else; because many generic public schools are failing as well.

[Hannah Bell]

16. thanks for kicking the thread, person who also supports the mass firing of ny public employees.

spew, spew, spew

"catapulting the propaganda"

[warm regards]

19. You are rather harried aren't you?

Marx...? A bit outdated--don't you think?

[MattBaggins]

21. I take you for a classic Marghita type.

Am I right?

[Hannah Bell]

24. so is red-baiting, clueless one.

[Starry Messenger]

18. As opposed to the name brand public schools?

I can't wait to teach at Time-Warner High School.

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. LOL that reminds me

when we were creating our magnet schools, someone suggested we name the elementary arts magnet The Disney School. One of our admins said "Oh, I don't know. Images of Mickey Mouse don't quite speak education to me".

[Starry Messenger]

23. rofl

Sadly the time is not too far away. There's a school in the Bay Area that has the Electronic Arts logo on the side, since they funded their multimedia lab.




I like computer games too, but seeing that gave me pain.

[Hannah Bell]

25. Walmart Global Charters, Inc.

[Starry Messenger]

26. The teachers could lead the Walmart cheer every morning.

How festive!

[Hannah Bell]

27. lol. "I'm an epsilon. I'm not as smart as alphas. Walmart will pay me $3 an hour when i grow up,

even though i'm not too bright...because they care! Look at our nice school!"

[Starry Messenger]

28. I'm can kind of picture that

which is scaring me. Ack!

[ddeclue]

20. sounds like a scam straight off of the Sopranos..

:wow:

How could any judge be so dumb as to fall for this?