Legislators Seek ‘Accountability’ For Cyber Charters

Article in today’s Evening Bulletin on the battle over cyber schools. Karen Beyer claims that “school choice proponents have paid lobbyists a sizeable amount to argue against HB 446: $250,000 from January to June alone” – which looks to me to be about $200,000 more than the lobbyist expenses of all the cyber schools, cyber school associations, and charter school associations combined – though this wouldn’t be the first time I have questioned Beyer’s claims about cyber schools.

Simon Campbell correctly points out that the PSEA lobbying and campaign spending dwarfs any lobbying by school choice proponents, which is like comparing Jabba the Hutt to Ashley Olsen in terms of body fat.

There is a articulate comment by “Recovering B&M Teacher” as well:

Let’s talk about the new “teacher” portion of this bill. Currently, cybers must have highly-qualified, certified teachers, and those teachers must abide by the state’s rules relating to Act 48, which is professional development. The new provision in the bill states that teachers in cyber schools can not count the time teaching there toward their permanent certification. Interesting, isn’t it? Why, you ask? Well, the PSEA doesn’t like any school where teachers aren’t in a union. AND, Rep. Beyer is working hard to make it so unattractive to work in cyber schools that teachers won’t want to do it.

This bill is absolutely appalling. It’s trying to make cyber students “second class” students, who
receive less money toward their education, and who have a hard time finding teachers to teach them.