From Education Voters of Pennsylvania (http://www.educationvoterspa.org/):
Pennsylvania’s Senate Education Committee voted HB 97, the charter school expansion bill, out of committee yesterday (June 29th). HB 97 was amended to ELIMINATE the $27 million in savings school districts would have received because of cuts in tuition rates to cyber charter schools.
The majority of Republicans who control the committee voted AGAINST commonsense amendments that would have required charter schools to employ more certified teachers and to use the same system to evaluate charter school and district school teachers.
They also voted against an amendment that would have subjected private companies that manage public charter schools to audits. These lawmakers clearly want to ensure that private companies that manage charter schools will be able siphon taxpayer dollars into their pockets (and mansions, airplanes, and shareholder profits, etc.) without the oversight of the pesky taxpayers who pay 100% of charter school tuition bills in PA.
HB 97 has been re-referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee. If it passes out of the full Senate with amendments, it would need to go back to the House for a concurrence vote.
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