School districts make more than $1 billion in tuition payments to Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools annually. Most of these dollars come from property taxes that are raised at the local level. They are intended to be invested in educating students. However, thanks to a broken funding formula in Harrisburg and a lack of adequate state oversight, cyber charter schools waste millions of tax dollars every year on things unrelated to educating students.
Each week, we will highlight a different school and new invoices that show how specific cyber charters waste tax dollars. (Spoiler alert: some of these invoices are shocking).
In addition, we will share the four year cohort graduation rates as well as Pennsylvania State Assessment scores for each featured cyber charter school within post. Be prepared to see some low numbers. Every single cyber charter in Pennsylvania has been identified as either a Comprehensive Support and Improvement school (CSI), a Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) school, or an Additional Comprehensive Support and Improvement School (ACSI) which are schools facing the most significant challenges in academic achievement, student growth, and other areas. To view a full chart of all Pennsylvania cyber school performances compared to statewide averages, click here.
Check back each week on Monday to see the newest example of how cyber charter schools waste tax dollars—and why Pennsylvanians need state lawmakers to take immediate action to enact reforms that will protect taxpayers from this waste and abuse.
Week Three: Reach Cyber Charter School
Buckle up for week three.
Reach Cyber Charter School spent more than $4 million on gift cards for students during the 2023-2024 school year. These include nearly $3.9 million spent on grocery gift cards and more than $150,000 spent on gift cards to Dominos, Target, Walmart, Dunkin’, Five Below, and Booksamillion.
Records show some gift cards were provided as “state testing incentives” (p. 161) and “attendance rewards” (pp. 47, 67, 82, 98, 118, 136, and 151).
Let’s make this clear – every dollar that Reach Cyber Charter School spent on gift cards for students is a dollar that was paid by a Pennsylvania taxpayer. In fact, most of this money came from property taxes home and business owners paid to their local school districts.
According to the most recent information reported on the Future Ready PA Index, Reach Cyber Charter enrolls 6152 students and is classified as a Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) school.
Reach Cyber Charter School had a four year cohort graduation rate of 80.0% in the 2022-2023 school year. The statewide average for that school year was 87.6%. Reach Cyber Charter is below statewide averages in percentage of “proficient or advanced students” for Pennsylvania State Assessments in English (19.3%), Math (6.3%), and Science (24.2%). All student groups did not meet interim goal/improvement targets for all three subjects.
Click invoices to enlarge.
Grocery Gift Card Purchase #1 – $953,183.20
Grocery Gift Card Purchase #2 – $973,461.20
Grocery Gift Card Purchase #3 – $977,948.40
Grocery Gift Card Purchase #4 – $989,590.80
Target Card Purchase – $87,508.00
Domino’s Gift Card Purchase – $54,000.00
Week Two: PA Virtual Cyber Charter School
For week two, we invite you to examine a yearly SEO management fee for PA Virtual Cyber Charter school – totaling $500,000.00. This agreement, originally listed at $420,000.00 but was then raised to $500,000.00, is paid to Nustream, a marketing company that specializes in “in promoting your business listing to the top of the Google search engine.” This invoice includes a $10,000.00 per month management fee.
In other words, PAVCS wasted half a million tax dollars in a single year on boosting their internet ads to the top of Google searches.
According to the most recent information reported on the Future Ready PA Index, PA Virtual Cyber Charter enrolls 2955 students and is classified as a Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) school.
PA Virtual Cyber Charter had a four year cohort graduation rate of 83.2% in the 2022-2023 school year. The statewide average for that school year was 87.6%. PA Virtual Cyber is below statewide averages in percentage of “proficient or advanced students” for Pennsylvania State Assessments in English (34.5%), Math (16.0%), and Science (42.3%). All student groups did not meet interim goal/improvement targets for all three subjects.
Click invoices to enlarge.
One SEO Management Spend – $500,000.00
Week One: 21st Century Cyber Charter School
We invite you to examine the invoices that 21st Century Cyber School provided to Education Voters of PA through a Right to Know request for expenses related to advertising and promotion for the 2023-2024 school year.
These invoices total $608,270.76 and include invoices for commercial shoots, TV Advertising, Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburg Pirates sponsorships, and thousands of dollars spent on social media advertising. On average, 21st Century Cyber School is spending approximately $551.47 per student per year on advertising and promotion expenses.
According to the most recent information reported on the Future Ready PA Index, 21st Century Charter School enrolls 1103 students and is classified as a Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) school.
21st Century Cyber had a four year cohort graduation rate of 68.1% in the 2022-2023 school year. The statewide average for that school year was 87.6%. 21st Century is below statewide averages in percentage of “proficient or advanced students” for Pennsylvania State Assessments in English (47.5%), Math (25.5%), and Science (43.8%). All student groups did not meet interim goal/improvement targets for all three subjects.
Below you can find a sample of some of the invoices we received through our RTK request. Click invoices to enlarge.
Commercial Shoot – $29,000.00
TV Advertising – $163,440.00
TV Advertising – $183,350.00
TV Advertising – $128,145.00
TV Advertising – $136,670.00
Search Engine Optimization – $14,875.00