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Committee presses for stronger oversight, public reporting and board transparency for cyber charter schools
Summary
Witnesses urged clearer authorizing rules, public reporting by the Department of Education and restrictions on cyber charter spending. Discussion focused on board accountability, renewal standards and audit findings.
Lawmakers at a House Education Committee hearing in Stroudsburg pressed for tighter governance, transparency and state-level oversight of cyber charter schools after witnesses described persistent gaps in authorizing and public accountability.
"Cyber charter schools are publicly funded schools and should be held at the same standards and requirements of districts," Stroudsburg Area School District Superintendent Cosmos Curry told the committee, urging a standard renewal review, public reporting and clearer attendance and enrollment verification. Curry pointed to state performance data showing many cyber programs fall in the lower tiers for academic achievement and growth.
Why it matters: Several witnesses described differences in how cyber-charter boards operate versus elected local school boards. Kevin Buscher of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association said district school boards are accountable to voters; by contrast, he said trustees of cyber boards are privately selected and can be harder for the public to monitor.
Specific governance concerns from testimony
- Renewal and authorizing: Maura McInerney told the committee that, in 2022, 11 of 14 cyber charter schools were operating without renewed charters and that many had not undergone enrollment or financial audits. She recommended that the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) adopt clear standards for renewal, nonrenewal and the imposition of enrollment caps for chronically failing cyber charters and publish an annual report to the General Assembly on cyber outcomes and enforcement actions.
- Board transparency: Kevin Buscher said locally elected school boards meet in public, post agendas and answer to voters. "Who do the cyber board members answer to? Privately selected boards ... can sometimes suffer from a lack of accountability," he said, urging more public-facing board practices for cyber trustees.
- Spending transparency and caps: McInerney and other witnesses urged statutory limits on spending categories such as advertising and event sponsorships and called for caps on unassigned fund balances similar to those that apply to school districts.
- Audits and enforcement: Testimony cited auditor general findings documenting questionable uses of public funds at some cyber schools and called for the Department of Education to have clearer authority and practice to deny renewals or revoke licenses when schools fail to meet academic or fiscal standards.
Directions and requests to lawmakers
- Several witnesses urged the General Assembly to require PDE to issue an annual public report to the legislature summarizing cyber charter performance on attendance, churn rates, special-education data by disability category, academic performance outcomes and financial performance.
- PSBA recommended building on Act 55 of 2024 and expanding statutory requirements for trustee financial disclosures and public meeting practices.
Ending
Committee members asked staff to compile examples of corporate spending and public reporting practices and to follow up with PDE on the status of renewals and audit enforcement. No formal enforcement action was taken at the hearing.
