charter-schools

Pennsylvania ranks near the bottom in national study of charter school performance

BY: - November 17, 2023

A decade’s worth of testing data ranks Pennsylvania among the states with the lowest charter school performance.  In a study of students’ scores in reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, researchers compared charter school performance in 35 states and Washington, D.C. Alaska had the highest scores compared to the average followed […]

Pa. education tour takes up school vouchers conversation in Philadelphia

BY: - October 25, 2023

Some argued vouchers offer school choice to parents in underperforming districts, while others said the programs siphon away much-needed tax revenue from districts that can least afford it

COMMENTARY
Building 21 in the Philadelphia School District (Photo by Ella Lathan for the Pennsylvania Capital-Star).

Keep our money in Pa.’s public schools where it belongs | Jill Sunday Bartoli

BY: - July 19, 2023

A new year, the same fight over education funding.

COMMENTARY

What’s the real cost of charter school tuition in Pa.? It’s more than you think | Opinion

BY: - October 31, 2022

For more than 25 years, Pennsylvania taxpayers have been paying charter school tuition rates that far exceed charter schools’ actual costs.

COMMENTARY

Here’s why charter schools in Pa., elsewhere aren’t as ‘public’ as they claim they are | Opinion

BY: - October 1, 2021

Charter schools are not as accessible to the public as they are often made out to be

COMMENTARY

Closures of Black K-12 schools across the nation threaten neighborhood stability | Analysis

BY: - June 29, 2021

Residents of the St. Louis neighborhood known as The Ville have been fighting for years to stop the closing of Charles H. Sumner High School, the oldest historically Black high school west of the Mississippi River.

COMMENTARY
Teacher and students in a classroom.

Say no to largest transfer of taxpayer dollars out of public schools in Pa. history | Opinion

BY: - June 11, 2021

PSEA supports high-quality charter and cyber charter schools. That’s why we feel so strongly that there needs to be accountability for charter schools and the boards, administrators, and for-profit management companies that operate some of them.

With a legacy at stake, Gov. Tom Wolf pushes for fair school funding

BY: - June 8, 2021

“Gov. Wolf might be gone in 18 months, but he’s not gonna be forgotten,” Rep. Matthew Bradford, of Montgomery County, the top Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, said. “His legacy is what we do on these school funding issues.”

charter school facade

Time is running out for Wolf to repopulate shorthanded charter school appeals board

BY: - March 28, 2021

During his six years in office, Wolf has not nominated a single member to the powerful appeals panel, whose appointed members can overturn decisions by locally elected school board directors. 

COMMENTARY

During pandemic, cyber charter schools are an important alternative for parents, kids | Opinion

BY: - November 20, 2020

Full-time online schools are an excellent option for families across Pennsylvania – an option that students deserve perhaps now more than ever.

As Democrats aim to flip the House, a top lawmaker took $600K from school choice donor trying to stop them

BY: - October 14, 2020

The No. 2 Democrat in the Pennsylvania House has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations from a group that’s funded at least $3.5 million in ads targeting vulnerable Democratic colleagues in an election in which control of the chamber is seen as up for grabs. House Minority Whip Jordan Harris, D-Philadelphia, raked […]

‘It’s a different type of campaign that we’re running here’ | 2020 Women Speak Up

BY: - March 11, 2020

This week we talk to Michelle Siegel, a Democrat running in north-central Pennsylvania’s 27th Senate District. She does not have a spring primary opponent, which means she’ll go on to face incumbent Sen. John Gordner, R-Columbia, the Senate GOP whip, who’s held the seat since 2004.