Susan Spicka, executive director of Education Voters of PA speaks at a House Democratic Policy Committee hearing in October 2022 to discuss the need to reform Pennsylvania’s charter school law and address teacher shortages across the state. (House Democratic Policy Committee photo)
Pennsylvania’s largest cyber charter school, Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA), said a report last week by a public education advocacy group contained “significant errors, falsehoods and intentional omissions aimed at maligning and defaming CCA.”
The report, “Our Taxes, Their Slush Fund,” was based on check registers for May 2021 through June 2023 that Education Voters of PA obtained from CCA through public records requests under Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law.
It criticized CCA for lacking transparency in its spending and for purchases from restaurants, entertainment venues, car dealerships and car washes, retailers, unidentified individuals and vendors and student caretakers, family mentors and staff members.
Through its attorney, CCA claimed the Education Voters report overstated the cyber school’s expenditures by tens of millions of dollars in several transactions.
Education Voters of PA acknowledged that the report released Jan. 27 contained an inaccurate amount for a CCA reimbursement to a staff member. The correct figure was $945 but the report stated it was 100 times that amount.
Susan Spicka, executive director of Education Voters, said in a statement Saturday that the amount was incorrectly transferred to a spreadsheet.
“This was an error that we missed and it has now been corrected,” Spicka said.
Spicka contested CCA’s broader claim that its report had overstated the school’s spending by at least $64.5 million.
The figures to which the school objected were drawn from an internal document “that included the entirety of CCA’s expenditures for an entire year, not just the expenditures that we examined in this report,” Spicka said.
“Their characterization of this as an error in our published findings is misleading,” Spicka said.
CCA was also critical of the Education Voters report for objecting to the redaction of personally identifiable information from the expenditure records. CCA said it had explained to Education Voters that the blacked out information included the names of “family mentors” who assist newly enrolled students in transitioning to online schooling, family members who received reimbursements for students attending extracurricular classes in the community, and staff who received tuition reimbursements for continuing education.
“It is important to note that CCA is required by federal and state laws and by constitutional provisions to protect the privacy of students, families and staff by preventing their personally identifiable information from being made public,” CCA’s attorney said in a letter.
Spicka said Education Voters does not object to the redaction of personal information, which is exempt from disclosure under the Right to Know Law.
Spicka noted that more than $2 million in transactions from CCAs 2021-2022 check registers remain fully redacted, raising further questions about transparency.
CCA said it enrolls 33,000 students and employs 2,400 staff with a yearly budget of $500 million.
“While Ed Voters alleged that CCA misuses taxpayer dollars, most expenditures highlighted in its report are for necessary travel-related expenses, which are customary for organizations of similar size with a statewide presence,” CCA said.
CCA said its staff must travel to meet with students and families, conduct state testing, enforce attendance and truancy laws, and organize field trips for students’ academic growth and socialization. It said schools commonly make purchases of school supplies and for facilities from retailers including Amazon, The Home Depot, Target, and Lowe’s.
“Attempting to draw a negative inference from the appearance of these vendors on a check register is maliciously disingenuous,” CCA said, adding that “Every taxpayer dollar CCA receives is used to provide a high-quality, flexible, and customizable education to all enrolled students.”
In a statement on Feb. 1, Education Voters of PA said “a fully corrected report is forthcoming and will be posted on our website.”