On Saturday, I received documentation from Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA) about a sign. I had to file a right-to-know-request to get the documents because CCA couldn’t possibly just tell me without making me (or anyone else) jump through hoops.
It’s not just any sign. It’s the sign in front of their corporate headquarters on Cameron Street as one enters Harrisburg from I-81. It’s electronic. It’s big. Its message changes constantly except for one part, “Enroll Now,” even though CCA’s board president emailed me in no uncertain terms, “CCA does not recruit students!” (exclamation point in original)
CCA used our local property taxes to pay for the sign (and everything else). And the cost?
Drum roll: $408,305. For a sign. For a corporate office. For a cyber school.
In addition to asking for copies of “all invoices pertaining to the design, construction, installation and maintenance of Commonwealth Charter Academy’s electronic sign at the intersection of Cameron Street and Wildwood Park Drive,” I asked for the minutes of the board meeting at which this expenditure was approved. The minutes documented not one word of discussion.
The lucky contractor was Cima Network Inc. of Chalfont, PA. Where? It’s a tiny borough (fewer than 4,500 people) between Philadelphia and Allentown, but closer to Trenton than to either.
How Cima Network Inc. was chosen over all the sign companies in PA is another question that I will be asking. Stay tuned, but know that I will probably not get a response until after Thanksgiving.
It’s never too soon to insist on accountability.
Even before I knew about the sign, I wrote to State Rep. Torren Ecker (unopposed in this year’s election) and State Sen. Greg Rothman. Both will be up for election in 2026. My letter to Sen. Rothman follows below.
I urge you to write to your legislators using this information. Only they can stop the fraud, waste and abuse. Only they can ensure that our property taxes stay in our communities for our community schools.
But we can make their re-election depend on how they fix this problem.
October 18, 2024
Sent via email
Dear Sen. Rothman,
Your constituents are paying close to $40 million in property taxes every year that are taken from your community public schools and given instead to cyber charter schools that are unmitigated failures both academically and financially. I wonder whether they know that.
The dominant PA cyber charter school is Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA). The most recent data available from the Pennsylvania Department of Education shows that:
· CCA’s six-year graduation rate of 71% is lower than Philadelphia’s graduation rate for every demographic of student – male, female, Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, low-income and special needs.
· CCA’s academic performance on the state’s PSSA and Keystone exams is far below state averages.
· As a cyber school, CCA has spent more per student – $20,516.29 – than 218 school districts, even though the actual cost of a cyber education is just $8,000 per student.
On October 9 I counted 14 CCA vehicles in the “CCA Fleet Vehicle Parking Only” parking lot. Why does a cyber school need a fleet of vehicles purchased by property taxes at the expense of community schools?
At its public board meeting that day, CCA approved a contract for more than half a million dollars ($557,550) to develop (not actually to provide) an online welding course with the contractor being paid $225 per hour. Welding classes that meet the standards established by the American Welding Society are already available through our vocational-technical schools that provide actual hands-on experience at a far lower cost. The CCA contract contains no requirement that its half-million-dollar curriculum will meet those standards. Why are taxpayers forced to pay for this extremely expensive duplication?
The board also approved a personal service contract for nebulous “communication services” to be billed at $250 per hour.
Altogether, CCA approved more than $1 million in contracts and other expenditures without a word of public deliberation as required by the Sunshine Act. This is typical. CCA conducts nearly all of its business in secret. Last month’s executive session prior to its public meeting lasted 1 hour and 39 minutes. The public board meeting lasted 16 minutes.
Nor does CCA make its financial information available to the public. None of it appears on CCA’s website. Contrast that with the Carlisle Area School District, for example, where multiple years of detailed financial information are available on its website within three clicks.
In August alone, CCA paid:
· $ 11,000 to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, a minor league baseball team. CCA has paid similar amounts to many other sports teams.
· $ 17,000 to Mazza Vineyards in North East PA
· $140,000 to LB Smith Ford-Lincoln (probably 3 vehicles)
· $147,000 to Endless Mountain Learning Center – a day care center.
· $496,000 to Strickler Agency Insurance
· $504,000 to AI Media Group (New York City advertising and promotion firm)
I have been attending CCA board meetings since April. I have examined their check registers for every month this year. The kind of waste, fraud and abuse I described above occurs every month.
CCA’s budget this year is $521 million. In August, it reported cash on hand of $206 million. This is 39.5% of its operating budget. As you know, school districts are limited to reserves of just 8% of their budget.
This is a problem of both Democratic and Republican administrations across multiple agencies. A search of the Auditor General’s website yields no audits for CCA. The Department of Education has not reviewed and renewed CCA’s charter or that of other cyber charters since their original charters expired. This forces your property taxpayers to support schools that operate without a valid charter, that have an unbroken record of failure, and that have not been held accountable for their use of billions in property tax dollars. And all of this comes at the expense of children in your community schools with higher academic achievement and true accountability to taxpayers.
Only you, as a state legislator, can correct these problems. I am willing to help. Please tell me how I can work with you to devise a plan to stop this waste, fraud and abuse.
It’s never too soon to insist on accountability.
Click here to contact your legislators.
Thanks Tim! Excellent piece and cogently written. The facts you have gathered are mind-boggling.
Just an agency that “keeps on giving” LOL.