Ask Your State Elected Officials About Their Position on Cyber Charter Schools

From Education Voters of Pennsylvania (http://www.educationvoterspa.org/):

Please take a few minutes to ask your state lawmakers about their positions on cyber charter school funding and accountability reforms at https://actionnetwork.org/letters/do-your-lawmakers-support-cyber-charter-school-funding-and-accountability-reform.

Right now, lawmakers are in their districts enjoying summer vacations. They are away from Harrisburg and have time to reflect on issues they will prioritize in the fall. Emails from constituents querying their positions on cyber charter schools will keep this issue on their radar and ensure that they know their constituents are watching them and expecting them to take action.

Click HERE to email your state senator and representative to ask them about their positions on cyber charter school funding and accountability reforms.

As you know, in February, Education Voters of PA issued a report about cyber charter school funding. We detailed how capping cyber charter school tuition rates at the actual cost of educating a child at home on a computer would eliminate wasteful spending and save more than $250 million in taxpayer dollars. We also detailed serious issues with cyber charter accountability and performance.

Since then, we’ve helped build substantial statewide momentum behind cyber charter school reform.

Thousands of advocates (you!!) contacted state lawmakers demanding cyber charter school reform and newspapers in 17 media markets throughout the state, from McKean to Philadelphia to Westmoreland to Susquehanna Counties, have covered our report and informed their readers about this issue. Three newspaper editorial boards have even endorsed cyber school funding reform (the Pottstown Mercury, the Washington County Observer-Reporter, and the Scranton Times-Tribune).

In June, Stanford University released a devastating report about student performance in cyber charter schools. The report found that PA’s cyber charter school students lose the equivalent of 106 days of learning per year in reading and 118 days in math when compared to their peers who attend schools in school districts.

WHYY’s Radio Times and WITF’s Smart Talk hosted hour-long shows about the issue of cyber charter performance and invited me to be part of the discussions. These were lively conversations, to say the least!

Not only are Pennsylvanians overpaying cyber charter schools, they are overpaying for failure.

And state lawmakers ignored this and went home for their summer vacations.

Please help ensure that your state lawmakers understand that their constituents expect them to take action on cyber charter school funding reform when they return to work this fall.

Click HERE to email your state senator and representative to ask them about their position on cyber charter school funding and accountability reform today!

If you receive a response, please share it with Ed Voters in order to keep track of lawmakers’ positions on the issue.

Thank you for your support of public education.