Perhaps the most important piece of information in this story is the cost to educate a student in a charter school, $3,500-$4,000 per year. If this is half the cost of educating a student at a traditional public school, then the focus should be on the public school setting a goal of $3,500-$4,000.

The hostility toward public education as expressed in this article stems from the unwillingness of public officials to realize delivery systems of education have changed in recent years. Trying to maintain a system that has been in place for decades, with small changes here and there, speaks to a "same 'ol way" attitude, protecting that which has been in place for a very long time.

While the cost of the advertising may be a legitimate point, the highlight of the article is the gap between the two forms of education. Trying to support the present system, while directing attention toward the advertising, just may be putting haze over the real problem.

"Every dime we (CM School District) spend goes into education." - REALLY - Mr. Zupancic?? When was the last time you took a good look at your budget line items? How much has the district spent on law suits and is continuing to spend? Also check out the costs for "other" unnessary spending for duplication of staff, sport staff & their costs, practice books for PSSA testing, etc. I could go on.. but that is your job. Before criticizing 'all' charter schools, take a better examination of their results. When CM district can't provide our students with an appropriate education - some of our students have no other choice but to go elsewhere.
Former CM Administrator

Rita, if you truly look at the results charter schools produce you would realize that they are below that of public schools. What proof do you have that there is "duplication of staff"? I am a taxpayer in the CM District as well and I have never seen any duplication of staff. Lastly, blaming a student's failure on the school entity is a moot point. It's been my experience that the majority of students who do not perform well at ANY district are a result of that student's home life, situation, or for a lack of the student trying to do well.

All public schools, including cm. need to learn how to budget! Giving a person a $50,000 dollar a year raise for a new position is insane! How many other "wasted" postions could be cut?? Stop increasing our taxes because of wasteful spending! I am not in favor of Charter schools. If parents want to send their kids there, pay for it themselves. Too many people get a free ride on taxpayer dollars. It has to stop.

I think the real question here is, why are the children leaving Canon Mac? I am a parent of 3 boys. My boys will all graduate from PA Cyber. Why? Mainly because 2 of the 3 boys are gifted, and the gifted program at Canon Mac is lacking a lot of things. The teachers don't have the time to challenge the children with meaningful work. Nor do the children work anywhere near their potential because the school has no way of determine what level they are working at. I was told my middle child could not have challenge readers (upper grade readers) because he would be bored in later grades. Said child had read the entire Chronicles of Narnia series, taken the AR quizes, and scored above 95% on all of them. Any time the children are given challenge work, they are expected to complete the classroom work and then the challenge work, essentially doubling their homework. The second reason my children will go to cyberschool, is the waste of non teaching time with things anti-bullying lessons and busy work. Bullying is a real problem, but when administrators cannot tell the difference between kids horsing around and bullying there is a problem. Finally, I want to be actively involved in my child's education. The elementary school my children attend do not allow the parents in the classroom to help at all. You can volunteer at the PFA, but you will never be in the room while the teacher is teaching or to interact with your child in a learning situation.

Fact: Their teachers are certified. Fact: They follow state standards just as Canon McMillan does. Fact: All of their teachers treat their students with respect and kindness. Their enthusiasm is contagious for their students. Pacyber teachers use many resources daily to make school fun and educational, mixing it up every day. Fact: Their teachers go above and beyond by mentoring their students during their tutoring time. Fact: Pacyber gives a child the opportunity to learn at their ability rate and accelerate from a very early age. Fact: Pacyber gives a child the opportunity to learn in a safe, non-bullying zone! Fact: Good students are not leaving Canon McMillan because of billboard advertising--they are leaving because of many other reasons. It is very sad to continue to read these disturbing comments lashing out at money going to Pacyber. BTW it is MY TAX dollars going to Pacyber for MY CHILD. Traditional public schools are challenging for all involved--students, teachers and administrators--thanks to today's society. I believe Canon McMillan should focus on the real issues students are leaving and improve them, instead of trying to take away options that will make a difference in the education of a child. Students would return to Canon McMillan, no matter how many billboards were in place--if more focus was on these many issues that have been brought to their attention by parents.

Anyone read the letter to the editor in the O/R from Jaret Romano???

One other thing I must add, about PA Cyber is the amount of interaction I have had with my son's K4 teacher and learning support. I have spoken more to his teacher at PA Cyber than the other two public schooled children combined. The LS (learning support) called me once a month. When my oldest child stopped doing his 'extra' work in math (after I saw it was just busy work) the teacher never called, yet brought this up in a meeting.

The CM School District is greatly fragmented. In my opinion, the middle school is the only school that offers options and opportunities. Taranto and his staff assume responsibility over their student body and, therefore, demand respect. Unfortunately, it all drops off at the high school level. I never thought I would be looking into the cyber school option, but it is greatly needed. With the class sizes at the high school, teachers overwhelmed, and the lack of any personalized attention - other than a sports figure - the students suffer at this level. I would much rather see my tax dollars going into billboards to make other families aware of the viable options available outside the district, than the dollars that go to law suits, settlement, raises and pensions.

Charter schools, including cybers, were set up to provide competition to the monopoly that existed 15 years ago in public education. Part of competition is being able to tell your story to potential customers, and that's where advertising comes in. School districts don't treat their students and families as valued customers, and that's why they leave.The modest amounts we as a cyber school spend to inform the public about school choice pales in comparison to the overblown budgets of Pa. school districts, which consume $24 BILLION a year in tax dollars. The Fleck bill which proposes a ban on advertising is an attempt to kill competition and deny school choice to families, and the Canon-Mac press outburst is part of an attack coordinated by the state school boards association and teacher union, timed to support anti-charter legislation. As the PA Cyber spokesman quoted in this story, I'd also like to clarify a couple of points. As the story rightly points out, part of our student population is transient for a number of reasons, but 24, not 20, is the percentage of students we have to replace each year. And it is two-thirds of virtual classroom teachers (about 80 employees) who work from home, not two-thirds of total school staff, which number about 650. PA Cyber is a home-grown cyber charter school, founded and headquartered in Midland, Pa. We have 3 large support centers and four satellite offices throughout the state.

The intro to this article is an oxymoron. Public schools ARE NONPROFIT both legally and by definition. PA Cyber Charter School is owned by the public. It has a volunteer board of directors who receive no compensation. Its employees earn wages and salaries comparable, and often less, than those in school districts. PA Cyber does not make profits!

Very interesting story, Zandy! Nice job.

J, as noted in the article, cybers educate children on average for $3,400 per year per child less than school districts. Those are PDE numbers from 2009-10.

J, I agree, but the question is WHY does competition in public schools end up increasing taxes? I'm not sure, but my guess has something to do with the outrageous benefits CM teachers enjoy.

Obviously, there is less cost involved with Cyber school. Taxes still went up? Did it all go to just the public school? Everybody wants to justify their position, but again, all I see are people fighting over a piece of the pie.

J, school districts still eat 96- 97% of the pie. Cybers account for 1%. You can't even call that a slice of pie, and they are trying to take that away.
Charter schools open to a discussion on funding - reimbursing actual costs on special education students, for instance - but the bill introduced by Rep. Fleck is designed to kill charter schools in Pa.

Cybers account for 1%, hence the advertising (at taxpayers expense) and the so called competition. So, yes, the school districts absolutely absorb more, but I see the Cybers trying very hard to gain some ground on those numbers. So you may not be eating as much now, but you are sure going to try to take more. Its inevitable when taxpayers money is at stake. You can give the "pros" of Cyber school all day, bottom line is, it another program I did not ask for that I am forced to pay for. Is that fair?

J-- I don't want to pay for the extras either. Cyber schools is not an 'extra' of public school. Once I remove my child from public school for cyber school they lose a lot of the 'extras'. You need to look at cyber school as another public school option.

I am not against cyber schools. I understand its another "option". Another option that has to be paid for. Then what, 5 yrs down the road, there will be another "option" available to kids. Then, maybe another one????? Where does it end? When it comes to taxpayer money, everyone wants a piece of the action.It eventually gets out of control (hence the public schools). They all claim they don't have enough money, so taxes go higher and higher. When will it stop.?

j, you speak of 'your' tax dollars. What about the tax dollars of parents within the Canon-Mac SD who choose charter schools? Those are the tax dollars following their child to a different school.

Their choice

I just thought that I would drop a note to let everyone know that aside from the people creating accounts anonymously today to throw in their two cents, the posts from Mr. Cyberguy are coming from Fred Miller the communication coordiantor for Pa Cyber Charter. Apparently, part of Mr. Miller's taxpayer funded duties are to troll message boards in order to put his company's spin on any criticism.

A school district gets so much money per student to teach, but when a parent decides to send her student to a cyber or charter school, then they only send 80% of the money to the school and keep 20% of it in the school district towards their budget. That isn't fair to the cyber or charter school as they should be turning all of the money over to them. My nephew teaches at a Cyber school and is available to the students from 7 am to 4 pm at night and then 3 nights a week parents can call and talk to him about his students. He also has 2 hours on the weekend that parents can get a hold of him to discuss their student.

You email or call teacher at any school some take weeks to get back to you or don't even give you the courteous of returning your call or email and you have to keep calling to get in touch with them. Teachers need to be accountable for keeping in touch with parents also and letting them know when a student is having problems with school work.

Mr. Zupancic, I did identify myself in my first post as the spokesman for PA Cyber Charter School quoted in the article. Read a litle more carefully, please. As the discussion continued I didn't think I would need to identify myself each time.
I've had the handle "Cyberguy" awhile so I didn't have to create a new comment account on Patch.com. I don't care for anonymous postings either, and never would post a comment I wouldn't post under my name.

And my phone is 724.777.5918 for Mr. Zupancic or anyone who would care to call and discuss cyber charter issues. Or email me at fred.miller@pacyber.org. Care to post your contact information, Mr. Zupancic?

And I did not appreciate the snide (and erroneous) comment about "trolling the message boards," Mr. Zupancic. I was quoted in this story just as you were, and have as much right as you to join in this discussion.
I would assume that Canon-Mac has a public information officer, too. Am I correct?

While I'm on a roll, let me point out that the "charter reform" legislation announced Monday by Rep. Fleck apparently would - pay attention, everyone - eliminate tuition payments to cyber charters if the student's home district had its own cyber program. I add the caveat "apparently" because we have yet to see the finished text of the legislation.

I have one child with 2 day left at South Central Elementary and one in 7th grade at PA Cyber. I am happy that I have the choice to do what is in the best interest of my children as individuals. I couldn't have been any happier with South Central and the staff there but my 7th grader is still in counseling to this day because of the abuse she sustained at North Strabane Intermediate. I am so thankful that I had the option of another public school. To say that PA Cyber saved her life is not an overstatement and I'm happy to say she is thriving. Thank you Mr Miller and everyone at PA Cyber for helping me provide a healthy learning environment for my daughter.

That's great momof3. Your daughter is happy. There are children who do not thrive in that environment. My niece is one of them. Her mother pulled her out of public school for reasons that had nothing to do with the quality of education her daughter was receiving. In fact she spoke highly of all the teachers her daughter had. My niece dis very well and thrived at school. Now she is miserable. She told me (in confidence) she hates cyber school and is so lonely. She misses her friends terribly. She said she just wants to be a "normal" kid (her words) and go back to public school. It won't happen for this poor kid. (that's another story) anyhow, I guess there are pros and cons in every situation.

How many parents pay a tax bill equal to that of their home district's per-pupil expenditure? Not many. So, when your child takes "their money" to the cyber school (beware vouchers), they are taking much more money than mommy and daddy pay in taxes. Very simple math. It is a drain on all taxpayers.

Just as a reminder - Patch asks readers to use real names for transparency. If possible, please do so.

I will have a 7th grader in pacyber next year. I've explained to him that he will have a new normal for seeing and interacting with his friends. He understands that...

Jerry - I deleted your comment because it contained a personal attack. If you would like to rework and include the links again, please feel free. Thanks! Any questions just give me a buzz on my cell. It is 724-510-5659.

Jerry, please repost with the links... They were very informative.

Cosmo, if you don't pay $10,000 in property taxes then you don't pay the per-pupil cost for your child's school district education either. C'mon.
- Fred Miller (full disclosure for those who haven't kept up)

Can anyone tell me how many have enrolled their children into cyberschool and then subsequently re-enrolled their child back into the public/private schools?

Mr. Zupancic - I am still waiting for you to respond to my original question - how much has the school district spent and is spending on lawsuits? If you are really concerned about taxpayers' $$$ you would be more responsive as a board member to the needs of our students and spend the $$$ more wisely.

Cindy, PA Cyber has a 24 percent attrition rate, but that includes all reasons for disenrolling. Although we believe every school should provide cyber options to its students, we've never said full-time cyber school is the answer for every student. When students come to us, we do our best in face-to-face meetings, before admission, to make the student and parent understand what cyber school is like and what is expected of them. As a public school, however, we cannot turn them away if they insist on enrolling, even when we advise against it.
When students disenroll from cyber school we ask each one why. I can't give you hard numbers but often it's because cyber school wasn't what they expected after all, or they miss their friends, or it's harder than they thought it would be. Sometimes they miss the structure of a classroom, which is another way of saying they don't have the parental support or the self-discipline necessary to study at home. Students who come to cyber school after 10 or 11 years in a classroom school may find the adjustment difficult.
Too often, students come to cyber school because they have not applied themselves and are failing. We identify these students pretty quickly and either they get on track or they bail out after a few weeks.

I've seen numerous articles with several school districts complaining about the lost of funding to charter schools. All focus on the economic impact on the school district. Let's look at the facts. 1) a parent/student chose a charter school over the local school district. and 2) since the school district no longer has the responsibility of educating that student, they are deducted approximately 80 percent of the educational costs of the student. Sounds to me like the school district came out 20 percent ahead. Instead of questioning why they are losing funding, the school district should be questioning why they are losing the child; and if the district wants to retain the child, make the appropriate corrections in the educational system. If the school district isn't willing to do this, the lost funds are appropriate. Advertising costs are really just a side issue.l

Sue T hit an important point. Earlier, the idea of competition was mentioned. And, "j" was commenting about options, "where will it end?"

In reading the article again, the underlying message of the Board is fear of competition. I think the key phrase, "... they are pulling away our student..." says much about the fear of competition.

Yes, "j," competition is good. Yes, "j," there should be more options. Many families have chosen homeschooling as an option, at an increasing rate. Why should the public schools have a strong-hold, one that is sacred? There are many ways to educate our children, with the public school being one of them. Why do so many in the public system feel that their way is the only way, or always the best? Could it be protectionism? Let me guess?

Yes, competition should raise the question on why the cost of the public schools is so much greater, a question the Board has not addressed. If another party can deliver the product, equal or better, then the cost issue needs addressing. It sounds like the Board merely ignores the issue, and moves on as an uninterested party.

To Dee, clearly the case you cited needs attention. From your brief description, the parent did not understand cyberschooling, or was not in a position to manage. There is no reason any student should feel lonely. The expectations and perceptions did not match the reality.

Cyber Charter Performance:
One might question whether some fraction of the excess tuition at cyber charter schools
could be justified by the educational performance of those charter schools. In every
case, however, Pennsylvania cyber charter schools have performed worse than
the public schools from which they draw students. The Center for Research on
Education Outcomes (CREDO), an independent research organization at Stanford
University which favors education reform, released a report on Pennsylvania Charter
School Performance in April 2011.

Cyber Charter use of Funds:
In additional to funding and performance issues, cyber charter schools have fewer
restrictions on the use of tuition funds received for student education. Unlike traditional public schools, cyber charter schools have no limits placed on the size of unrestricted, undesignated fund balances they can accrue. While a traditional public school would be required to return excess fund balances to the local taxpayers, there is no mechanism for cyber charter schools to return fund balances many times these limits. Finally, there are currently no restrictions on cyber charter schoolsʼ use of state and local educational funding for lobbying, paid media or bonuses. A recent report on K12, the for-profit management company that runs Pennsylvaniaʼs largest Cyber CharterSchool, indicated that the company has spend $681,000 on lobbying in Pennsylvaniasince 2007 and spent $26.5 million on advertising in 2010 alone. 4 Since cyber charter schools are not competing on the basis of price or quality, there is significant concern that they are choosing to compete based on marketing and favorable legislative treatment instead.

I'm going to post this and then I'm done. I really don't have the time to be arguing back and forth with union hacks that seem to consume this conversation. It seems odd to me that as soon as Mr. Zupancic's political agenda was uncovered, he disappeared and several other proponents of status quo Public Schools appeared. All with perfect grammer and punctuation. This is not something I'm going to dwell on, I'm just saying. As most people that visit this site know, we are up here from Texas. I have two boys in Washington Schools. One will be going to 4th grade and the other to 6th grade. The 4th grader ranks #1 in his class in 3 major subjects with a straight A report. The 6th grader ranks #1 in 2 major subjects and has 1 B. In that subject he ranks 4th. Both rank #1 in Math. The youngest one had homework every night and the oldest rarely had homework at all. I push my kids hard in school. Good grades are expected more than rewarded. It is my worry that these kids are not being challenged. They have been in two other different schools. One in Louisiana and one in Texas. I know what kind of grades they are capable of and for my oldest to have a 95 average in math, tells me they are NOT being challenged. He has always sruggled to make an A in math. I would rather them struggle to make an A rather than breeze through and not get the best education possible and if you think that I'm NOT going to look for different avenues to make that happen, you have another thing coming.

Truth Seeker, you need to seek Fact Checker on some of your assertions.
PA Cyber (for whom I work, full disclosure) with 11,000 students is the largest cyber charter school in Pa. and is NOT operated by K12 as you stated. K12 cybers are competitors. I'm not here to defend K12 but I suspect the $26.5 million in advertising costs is a nationwide advertising cost. Please clarify if you can cite your source.
You say charter schools should not hire lobbyists. Pittsburgh City schools have an office in Harrisburg with four staffers. The school boards association and teacher unions have lobbyists. Their job is to protect the $24 BILLION districts receive in public education funding . Cybers get about 1% of that, $269 MILLION (PDE figures 2009-10)
You want to limit fund balances for charters. Last year PA Cyber had to borrow $31 million to start the school year because of cash flow issues with the way cybers are paid. School districts find creative ways around balance restrictions. Pennsylvania school districts hold $2.8 BILLION (2009-10) in cash reserves.

Truth Seeker, you correctly state that cyber schools do not compete on the basis of price (since all public schools are free to state residents), but incorrect when you say they do not compete on the basis of quality. Quality of instruction helps explain the phenomenal growth of cyber schools. If quality were not an issue, families would return to enroll in the cyber programs started by their home districts. Few do.

You cite the Stanford CREDO study. The "identical matching pairs" methodology for the CREDO study was to create an imaginary or composite student from statistics from public classroom schools and compare the academic progress of that "student" with a real student from a cyber school. A dissenting scholar from Stanford said this method is flawed at its core and will always favor the composite student. Her memos on this objection are posted on the CREDO website itself.

A final word on PSSA testing. PA Cyber has made AYP the past three years, in part because PSSA tests measure not only where the student is in reading and math, but how far he or she has come while enrolled in our school.

Truth Seeker, B&M charters and cyber charter schools are public schools. They are nonprofits. They are owned by the public. Their volunteer boards of directors by law may not be compensated.
Every school, Canon-Mac included, purchases goods and services from for-profit vendors. Please try to wrap your head around this. Our cyber charter school, PA Cyber, purchases most of its online curriculum and some services from a nonprofit foundation. We also buy curriculum from Calvert Learning, a for-profit vendor, because it is a quality curriculum.
Four of the state's 12 cyber charter schools are operated by Intermediate Units, which are part of the state school system. IU3, for example, buys online curriculum from Florida Virtual. Other cybers like Agora buy just about everything from K12, which is a for-profit. Nearly all of the cyber programs started by school districts buy their curriculum from someone because it is quite expensive to create.
I'm willing to bet that school districts who say they can offer a cyber program for $4,000 are not adding in all the overhead costs of operating a school. They factor in only the add-on costs of a few teachers, an administrator, a computer and some off-the-shelf online courses.

http://www.repfleck.com/NewsItem.aspx?NewsID=14514

Support reasonable reforms in regards to charters and cyber charter schools.

for real .. . . this isn't reasonable changes. This bill is aimed to kill anything but public schools. Notice all the sponsors . . .

education related groups that support the bill: Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA), Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO), Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA) and Pennsylvania Association for Rural and Small Schools (PARSS). Have you looked at the lobbying dollars behind these organizations? So why is it ok for schools to lobby but not cyber charger schools? If there is to be no lobbying then all the school districts need to leave these organizations.

Quoting: "... You have such little overhead: transportation, bricks and mortar, energy costs, lower labor costs etc. ..."

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! This makes the point quite clear that there are other ways of delivering education to our children, OTHER THAN the traditional public schools. Despite the writer recognizing this fact, there are plenty of opponents who wish eliminate alternative delivery systems, ones that cost far less, and do an equal or better job.

As pointed out the Board member sent surrogates to take the mantle after being exposed. From reading the comments, it seems clear that the concern is competition, albeit small right now. Yes, protectionism of the status quo is at work. Education of our children of lesser concern that keeping the present system, being certain that the same jobs exist into the future, at even higher costs than before. Yes, keep the stream of cash coming, and in greater volume.

Yes, there other alternative educational systems needed, including those focused on vocational training. The drought of students needed for trades, especially in this region with the demands of MS, points up a missing link in education in later grade levels.

For Real, the Fleck bill is designed to kill charter schools, not reform them. For instance, it provides that if a school district has its own cyber program (never mind the quality of that program), students in that district would not be able to enroll in a cyber charter school.
As to your comment about cybers costing less to operate, you and Roger and I agree. . . to a point. Cybers don't have classroom buildings, football stadiums or bus fleets or coach salaries. That's why we receive 76 cents on the dollar compared to what school districts spend per-pupil. We do have buildings for staff, however, along with utilities, maintenance and all the other costs of facilities. We have principals, teachers, school nurses, guidance, tutoring, school records, plus some costs that B&M schools don't have, like a large tech support staff, compurters, shipping costs, online curriculum, educational software (Blackboard etc.) and Internet access for every student. Last year it cost PA Cyber $875,000 to administer the state PSSA tests at 30 sites across the state. With the exceptions listed above, our school has virtually (pardon the pun) every cost to operate that brick and mortar schools have.
People who believe we operate an online school for 11,000 students from laptops on our kitchen tables, or that online curriculum consists of canned lectures on videotape, absolutely do not understand how a quality cyber school operates.

@amanda, how many children in canon Mac are enrolled in a cyber or charter school? What percentage of the budget is this?

Here is the flip side here: mwhat happens if this bill passes and canon Mac decides to create their own cyber school and parent doesn't want their child to go? Can you imagine if all these parent began to homeschool and did not have to follow state guidelines (to a degree) like pacyber does? No matter how you look at it, school vouchers are the answer to keep people accountable as well as create a better more competitive system. When the dollars, i mean children really start to leave that is when school districts will,wake up to the problems.

In 2007 Rep. Karen Beyer led a legislative effort to reduce funding for cyber charters. It foundered on the rocks of the underlying inequity in funding between districts, and Beyer was turned out of office. If a single statewide tuition rate is enacted, the poorer districts won't be helped and the wealthy districts will pay half what they are paying now.
The Fleck bill is so draconian it is not going to go anywhere, though proponents may attempt to add specific provisions from it as amendments to the real charter reform bill, HB 2352. Constructive reforms to the charter school law, including funding, will be welcomed by charters and cyber charters.
Mana, I don't know total numbers of cyber students from Canon-Mac, but as of Oct. 1, 39 were enrolled in PA Cyber.

If you want to get the inside view of school choice from someone who lives it, check out Natalie Hopkinson's article written in the NY Times published on December 4, 2011. She talks about how it affected her neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/opinion/why-school-choice-fails.html

Looked up the Fleck Bill. I support it 100%. Look at what our Audtor General is saying about charters and cyb. charters.

http://newsitem.com/news/state-concern-over-cyber-school-funding-mirrors-criticism-from-local-administrators-1.1297248#axzz1xmSZGaTe

This needs to be changed now. the funding formula for these schools is a joke.

An invitation to all who have commented on this thread: Come to PA Cyber for a tour of the state's best cyber school, and lunch on me. Email me (fred.miller@pacyber.org) and we'll find a date time convenient for you to visit our school in Midland, Pa.: .
This has been an excellent forum for discussion of some very complicated issues. The thread has gone on much longer than I expected. My thanks to Patch.com and Zandy for providing the platform and monitoring the exchanges, which have been civil and constructive for the most part. Truth Seeker, For Real, Mr. Zupancic, Jerry, Mana, Roger, Zandy, everyone is welcome. Come and ask whatever questions you want to, see whatever you want of our facilities, employees and operations. I promise a friendly welcome and open discussion. Mr. Zupanic, I'd also welcome the chance to tour Canon-Mac and see your cyber program.
Best to all - Fred Miller, communications coordinator, PA Cyber Charter School. 724.777.5918 cell

Mr. Miller, I've not met you yet—but I'm Amanda, the editor of the site. Thank you for your kind offer, and for the information you provided the forum. If I may ever be of further assistance to you, please feel free to call me anytime. My number is 724-510-5659.

http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pa-wagner-charter-school-20120620,0,1023117.story
Maybe you should invite the auditor general to lunch. Sounds like he would love to talk to you and some of your other friends.

@amanda have you considered taking mr miller up on his offer for lunch and writing about what you learn?

@Mana: I certainly have. I will be in contact with Mr. Miller on the matter–especially since the subject has generated so much interest. Thanks for following up Mana!

Amanda, how did you lunch go?

For those who followed this, the majority of the legislation didn't pass! My children will continue to have limited school choice! I am very pleased about this!

Mana - I have not yet had lunch and I thank you for putting it back on my radar. I had a vacation and an illness in between these posts!

Poor you! Vacation and illness should not be used in the same sentence. Hope you are well now.

Oh, Mana! I'm writing a column about vacation—and Urgent Care's role in it LOL. I am almost all better! Thank you so much for the kind words! I put "Call Mr. Miller" on my to-do list for this week! :)

Fred Miller from PA Cyber here - amazing that this thread is still going. It shows how concerned people are about having real educational choices for their kids. My offer for lunch and a tour of PA Cyber operations in Midland is still open. To get everyone up to date on state charter school legislation, the anti-cyber Fleck bill never went anywhere, but the charter reform legislation backed by our school and the coalition didn't get passed, either. Supposedly both House and Senate supported the reforms, but differences in their versions was holding up the state budget and leadership decided to put charter reform off for the moment. The governor promised to put this issue front and center on the legislation's agenda this fall.

Thank you, Mr. Miller!