Cyber charter schools receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars each year. Yet six of Pennsylvania’s major cyber charter schools do not make their board materials publicly available online.  (A handful, including 21st Century Cyber Charter School, Agora Cyber Charter School, and Insight PA Cyber Charter School, post their board materials online).

When board materials are not posted online, families, taxpayers, and community members cannot easily review meeting agendas, financial reports, contracts, invoices, and other materials that help explain how these publicly-funded schools operate.

The only way to receive the information that cyber charter board members discuss and vote on is to file a Right-To-Know Request. And even then, access isn’t immediate. Under Pennsylvania law, agencies have five business days to respond to a Right-to-Know request and can take an additional 30-day extension.  Our experience is that cybers almost always take the 30-day extension.

That means that by the time records are released, the meeting has come and gone, decisions have been made, the information is no longer timely, and there is no opportunity for any meaningful public input. 

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We think public information about how cyber charter schools spend hundreds of millions of dollars should be easier to access.

That’s why Education Voters of Pennsylvania has launched a new Cyber Charter Transparency Center.

Through ongoing Right-to-Know requests, we’re collecting cyber charter board materials and posting them in one central location. Our goal is simple: to make it easier for families, journalists, policymakers, and community members to access information about how cyber charter schools operate and how public dollars are being spent.

Whether you’re looking for financial reports, board agendas, spending approvals, contracts, or other public records, this growing archive is designed to bring greater transparency to Pennsylvania’s cyber charter sector.

View the current board packets we’ve collected by clicking HERE. It is quite eye-opening to see the size of some cyber charters’ budgets and how they spend our tax dollars.

We’ll be updating this page soon to include packets from March, April, and May – all currently stuck behind lengthy Right-to-Know request delays.