You may remember our blog post from February 14, 2024, titled, “We took a cyber charter to court, and won!” We detailed spending more than two years in court trying to get Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA) to produce documents that they had been ordered by the Office of Open Records to give to Ed Voters following a Right to Know request that we had filed. We were thrilled to share the Order made by the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County that told Commonwealth Charter Academy to turn over Community Class Registration Forms requested by Education Voters of PA, redacted of any personally identifying information.

However, CCA did not turn over the forms. Instead, they appealed to the Commonwealth Court.

Today we are delighted to share that on March 11, 2025, the Commonwealth Court affirmed the Order made by the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County that CCA produce the forms.

Click HERE to read the full court opinion.

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What’s next?

CCA may file an application for reargument before the Commonwealth Court or a petition for allowance to appeal this decision to the PA Supreme Court. If they opt not to appeal it, they have to provide the forms to Education Voters of PA. We will report back what happens!

We owe a debt of gratitude to the Public Interest Law Center

The Public Interest Law Center is an invaluable organization in Pennsylvania that holds power to account. With the Law Center’s expert legal help, our tiny nonprofit was able to go to court with a cyber charter school that receives more than $500 million annually in revenue and win.

If you’d like to make a donation to show your appreciation for the time and effort that the Public Interest Law Center dedicated to helping Ed Voters with this case and to support the other important work they do, click HERE to donate.

Background

Just about three years ago we learned that CCA was giving families cash payments after they filed a “community class registration form,” seeking reimbursement for activities their children participate in outside of school. We filed a RTK request seeking copies of these forms (with all identifying information redacted) to better understand how CCA was spending Pennsylvanians’ tax dollars.

Cyber charter schools receive more than $1 billion in tuition payments from school districts each year and spend these dollars with far less transparency and accountability than the school districts that fund them.

For example, if school districts were providing cash payments to families to reimburse them for their children’s leisure activities like horseback riding or dance lessons or fees for youth sports activities, the home and business owners whose property taxes support the school district would know about these payments. The school board would need to pass a policy enabling the payments and approve the payments in public meetings. Taxpayers would have an opportunity to express their views on these payments with comments at public meetings, through conversations with board members in their communities, and, ultimately, at the ballot box when school board members run for election.

With cyber charter schools, policies are enacted and payments are made with little transparency and virtually no public knowledge. 

Homeowners who struggle to pay for their medicine and other necessities after they pay their property tax bills should know that cyber charter schools are using their tax dollars to pay for the leisure activities of students enrolled in cyber charters. State lawmakers should understand that cyber charters have so much excess funding that they can spend the property tax dollars that are drained out of the schools and communities they represent on cash payments to families.

Legislative reforms that are needed

CCA is a public school and is required to provide access to public records in accordance with Pennsylvania’s Right to Know law. Taxpayers should not be on the hook for paying cyber charter schools’ very expensive legal bills whenever they decide that they want to fight to keep public documents secret.

We are calling on the PA General Assembly to mandate that cyber charter schools provide the legislature with an annual report that discloses the amount and purpose of each and every cash payment that the schools make to any family member of a student enrolled in the school, ensuring that all identifying student information will be redacted from reports. The General Assembly must also require cyber charters to provide all forms and documentation that detail the reasons for any and all cash payments to students’ family members.

Finally, the PA legislature must require cyber charter schools to provide the legislature with an annual report disclosing the amount of money they spend on gift cards that are provided to families and the purpose for providing the gift cards.

To read the full decision, click HERE.

Thank you for your support of public education. We are grateful to do this important work together.

The Ed Voters Team

Susan Spicka
Sandra Miller
Lucas Wolk