***There were minor data discrepancies in our original report that was published on January 27, 2025. After Ed Voters was made aware of these discrepancies, we manually matched each line of the entries in our data set against the original PDFs we received from CCA and updated the data used in the report.

This report, which was published on February 3, 2025, has been updated with corrected data. A spreadsheet that contains detailed information along with new total spending for categories in the report is attached.

This report examines Commonwealth Charter Academy’s check registers (obtained through Right to Know requests) from the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years. Our examination reveals spending on dining, entertainment, travel, vehicles, shopping, and more.

The tax dollars that fund Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA) and other cyber charters come primarily from property taxes paid by Pennsylvanians to their school districts. They are paid by retirees who don’t have enough money to buy medicine after they pay their property tax bills and families that struggle to put food on the table for their children each month. These tax dollars are removed from school districts that are underfunded by more than $4 billion and that lack basic and essential resources that students need to be successful academically.

KEY FINDINGS INCLUDE:

Our examination found that from July 2022-June 2023:

• CCA made 456 payments totaling more than $116,000 for dining.
• CCA made 193 payments totaling more than $405,000 for entertainment, including $4000 to the Hill Society where CCA is listed as a platinum corporate partner on the website.
• CCA made 52 payments totaling more than $603,000 to car dealerships and car washes.
• CCA made 280 payments totaling more than $407,000 to dozens of stores for unidentified shopping expenses.
• CCA made 2404 payments totaling more than $1.2 million in cash payments to CCA families that were coded “family mentor” or “student/caretaker.”
• CCA made 770 payments totaling more than $626,000 that were coded “staff.”