Right to Know requests reveal $16.8 million in cyber charter advertising in 2021-2022.
CYBERS WASTED SCHOOL PROPERTY TAX DOLLARS ON BUS WRAPS, MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TICKETS, TV AND RADIO ADS, BILLBOARDS, HIGH-END HOODIES, AND MUCH, MUCH, MORE!
Tell your state lawmakers to take action to rein in wasteful spending by cyber charter schools.
Education Voters of PA filed Right to Know requests with Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools seeking all invoices for advertising, marketing, and promotions, including invoices for communications firms and third-party vendors contracted to do this work for the 2021-2022 school year. We also asked for information about gift cards, cash payments, parties, and events.
We received responses from ten cyber charters and logged nearly 3,000 pages of invoices and multiple spreadsheets of transactions and found that cyber charters wasted more than $16.8 million in a single year on advertising and promotion. All information is posted in a Google drive that can be accessed HERE.
For a summary of what we learned, click HERE.
THE WASTE WAS STAGGERING.
✅ Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA) wasted $150k+ on Major League baseball tickets, catering and parking & other parties. Click HERE to scroll through the invoices.
✅ PA Cyber Charter School bought high-end hoodies, embroidered cardigans, track jackets, and so much more. Click HERE to scroll through the invoices.
✅Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA) spent $3.4 million on advertising in a three-month period in 2022 (January-March).
✅Achievement House Cyber Charter School spent $1,306/student on advertising.
✅PA Cyber spent $58,000 on swag, including $9,725 on owl-shaped erasers, $6,750 on custom lapel pins, $8,678 on branded Post-It notes, and $18,120 on branded magnets.
✅PA Virtual Charter School spent $132,404 on bus wraps and other transit advertising.
✅PA Virtual Charter school spent $28,807 on sponsorships of minor league baseball teams.
✅Reach Cyber Charter School spent $125,308 on Target gift cards for students.
✅PA Distance Learning Charter School spent $80,254 per year on an employee who handles advertising.
✅Insight Cyber Charter School spent $959,053 on a contract for undisclosed services with for-profit management company K-12, Inc.
In 2021-2022, school districts sent nearly $1 billion in tuition payments to cyber charter schools. Because there is no state reimbursement for these costs, cyber charter tuition payments are funded primarily by property taxes.
PA law mandates that the tuition rates school districts pay cyber charter schools far exceed the cost of educating students at home on a computer, leaving cyber charter schools awash in excess money that they waste. And the evidence of this waste is in plain sight.
State lawmakers could end the excessive profiteering of cyber charter schools with the stroke of a pen. Simple reforms to Pennsylvania’s 25-year-old charter school law that more closely match the tuition districts pay to cyber charters with the actual cost of a cyber charter education would leave cybers with plenty of funding to educate their students and reduce tuition costs for districts. This would mean more money in school district classrooms, less pressure to raise property taxes, and fewer dollars for cyber charter schools to waste.
Unfortunately, state lawmakers have not made commonsense funding reforms that would protect taxpayers from this flagrant waste and abuse of their property tax dollars a priority.
In the upcoming weeks, state lawmakers will be negotiating the 2023-2024 state budget. It is past time for the legislature to stand up for taxpayers and students. Our school property taxes should be spent on educating children, not wasted on ballpark parties, Turnpike billboards, and high-end hoodies. Click HERE to contact your state lawmakers now!