We are calling you to hold cyber charter schools to the same financial accountability standards as other public schools and immediately lay out a calendar to audit every cyber charter school. Cyber charter schools with the largest budgets should be prioritized.

The Auditor General audits school districts every three years to ensure that they are using taxpayer dollars properly. These audits are publicly posted for taxpayers to view. Taxpayers should have the same access to audits of cyber charter schools.

Recent reporting in the Scranton Times-Tribune revealed a stunning lack of state oversight over billions of taxpayer dollars that have been poured into cyber charters over the past two decades.

Half of Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools have never been audited. Commonwealth Charter Academy, the largest cyber charter in the state with an expected $270 million budget for 2021, was last audited in 2012.

Cyber charter schools received more than $1 billion in taxpayer-funded tuition payments in the 2020-2021 school year. With no state oversight, the opportunities for waste, fraud, and abuse are staggering.

Previous audits of cyber charter schools have revealed alarming conflicts of interest, gross mismanagement of funding, and, in one school, more than $110 million sent to a management company with no oversight over how this funding was spent.

In addition, reporting in the Times-Tribune documented that one cyber charter school spent $1000 per student on advertising in a single year while other cyber charters spent taxpayer money to purchase cell phones and Target gift cards for students and to provide families with cash payments.

We rely on the Auditor General’s office to fight against waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer funding and to ensure that precious school tax dollars are being invested wisely into educating our public school students.

Please make auditing cyber charter schools a priority for your administration.