Thank you for taking action. State lawmakers listened (for now) and the legislation is no longer moving. Great work!!

Yesterday the Senate Education Committee passed House Bill 355. BUT--it looks like this will be amended and will NOT provide the comprehensive reforms that are needed. This legislation DOES NOT support improved student achievement or greater fiscal transparency and organizational accountability. In short, it is meant to keep real reform from passing.

Please contact your state legislators and urge them to oppose this utterly inadequate charter school reform legislation.

Any charter school reform bill MUST

• End the enormous profits charter schools reap from tuition payments for students with disabilities.
• Provide real cyber charter school tuition savings by making sure that the tuition payments are matched to the actual cost of educating a student at home on a computer, instead of the current set up which has millions of dollars draining out of the public education system. See our recent report.
• Address academic accountability in PA’s cyber charter schools to hold accountable charters that fail to provide students with a quality education.

A charter school reform bill with watered-down accountability and transparency rules is not worth trading away the substantial reforms that are necessary to protect taxpayers and to ensure that students have high-quality charter options.

It is difficult to imagine that Pennsylvania’s greedy charter school industry would come back to the table to negotiate real funding or academic accountability reforms that would protect taxpayers and students if something like this becomes law.