Cyber charters want to start a conversation with Pa. education officials

In an unprecedented move, the CEOs of nine of Pennsylvania's 13 cyber charter schools have invited state Education Secretary Pedro Rivera to join them in a conversation on improving virtual education.

Their letter, which was sent Thursday, came a week after three national pro-charter organizations released a report calling for improved oversight of cyber charters and cracking down on poorly performing ones nationwide.

"Although none of the data in that report is new, and many of the recommendations are inappropriate or illegal in Pennsylvania, the basic premise that we could do more to assure the quality and accountability of cyber education is valid," said Reese Flurie, CEO of Harrisburg-based Commonwealth Charter Academy.

"But reports without action are useless and generalized national data is too superficial to be used as an unquestioned prescription for state public policy," he said.

The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, which sent the letter, said Friday that the nine schools enroll 35,000 of the 36,000 students in the state who are in cyber charter schools.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said Rivera had received the letter, but had no further comment.

No Pennsylvania cyber charters, which provide online instruction to students in their homes, met the state's most recent benchmark for academic performance.

"What we are proposing is an open and honest discussion on what virtual education can and cannot do, dig deeper into the data and recommendations relative to Pennsylvania, and change whatever needs to be changed to make Pennsylvania the national model for high-quality and cost-effective virtual education," Joanne Barnett, CEO of the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School in King of Prussia, said in a statement.