Cyber school on Snow Days

At traditional schools when there is a lot of snow the teachers and students take off work. According to the Washington Post the government loses $71,000,000 for each snow day that happens. In Cyber School when we get a snow day the students do not get off school, and the teachers continue to teach. There is no loss in productivity. The current climate change trend seems to be adding more snow days in the North East United States. This means we are likely to see more and more snow days. When teachers teach from home or students learn on their computers at home, snow days are just another school day.

When we add up the number of snow days already this year we can calculate quite a savings. For many schools there were a total of six snow days this year. This represents 4.26 billion dollars of savings in traditional schools. What could education do with 4.26 billion dollars of productivity? When the government shuts down there is no proven economic loss over the long term. When schools close there can be brain drain, and a lack of momentum. The loss of student achievement over the summer months is well documented. The start and stop of learning in the middle of a unit of study can also result in a learning deficit.

In addition to the learning lost there are also savings from snow days. As illustrated in the photo above there are no buses in cyber school on snow days. No buildings to heat, utilities to buy or building to clean.The traditional brick and mortar schools would do well to mimic cyber schools on snow days because it could more than pay for the money that is lost to cyber enrollment. 35,000 students receive $366 million in the state of Pennsylvania. What would we save by closing down schools on snow days? I would venture to guess that it may more than pay for the 35,000 student's tuition who have chosen to cyber school.

Since I have made this post in February of 2014 many districts have begun this practice. Should  Cyber Charter Schools  be resource schools for traditional schools for fund savings in the Pennsylvania Education System?

Defending cyber charter schools

 

Another View: Defending cyber charter schools

By Dr. James Hanak

Posted: 02/26/15, 7:57 PM EST

Dr. Hanak is a mentor, friend and colleague of mine at Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School. :)

For years, Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools have been criticized for under-performing on the state’s standardized tests (PSSAs). This is in part because cyber charter schools attract many students from struggling school districts that have failed to give these students a proper education.

So, this month, on their website, the PA Department of Education released the statewide SAT scores for 653 Pennsylvania high schools/charter high schools. Of the 189 charter schools in the state, three of the top six charter schools were cyber charter Schools. 

The top charter school was 21st Century Cyber Charter School in 63rd place with the next charter school placing at number 116! This happened even though there are only 14 cyber charter schools among the 189 statewide PA charter schools.

The most amazing part of this report is that all top eight charter schools accomplished their scores with 27 percent less money than their traditional counterparts!

 

So, what do cyber charter schools get as a reward?

Currently in Harrisburg, the House of Representatives is considering a bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Reese, (HB 530) that, if passed by the Senate and signed by the governor, would cut funding for cyber charter schools by more than 5 percent across the board and by as much as 8 percent for students from Philadelphia and as much as 15 percent from students from Chester.

The biggest problem with this bill is that it does not address the other inequities in the cyber charter school funding formula that punish the schools. All charter schools begin with only 75 cents on the dollar from the home sending school district. Along with this, charter schools are held to higher standards than traditional counterparts and cyber charter schools are graded with more stringent requirements than their equal brick-and-mortar counterparts.

The PA Association of School Business Officials, (PASBO.org) is the prime mover of this bill and has only one agenda. All the members of the PASBO board are top administrators in local school districts. They see students leaving their districts and taking tax dollars with them to the only charter schools that reach statewide – cyber charter schools. PASBO must do whatever it can to stop cyber charter schools from being successful. Forget the needs of the students. It is the needs of the budget that are paramount. 

Unfortunately, money talks and the little guy often gets crushed. Cyber schools were cut before because they were not making the grade. Now that they are successful, they most certainly must be cut. The education monopoly establishment must never allow a better innovative idea to catch hold. After all, it might force everyone else to rethink how they are delivering education. 

Cyber schools are utilizing tomorrow’s technology: iPads, video conferencing, multiple screens, touch screens, smart boards, interactive technology, educational gaming, avatars, MOODLE open source learning environments. Cyber schools can create virtual classrooms that pull students together from across the state and across cultural divides. Cyber schools provide state-of-the-art computers, a high-speed Internet and a full educational experience to all their students. A cyber school can provide a high school student any course he or she would ever want to take in a high school setting – including AP and honors courses and increasingly, university level courses.

This is why the education establishment must at all costs cut the funding to these already underfunded schools. The establishment fears the charter school movement, if left unfettered, will, in a couple of generations, take over as it already has in Washington, D.C. where now over 60 percent of the students attend a charter school.

If this bill passes, who are the winners? The well-paid administrators who won’t have to give up their perks and benefits. Who will lose? The thousands of students that are stuck in schools from which they cannot escape. Reported in “Chalk and Talk” ... written by Philadelphia public school teachers, in the Philadelphia Schools: 2005-2010 there were 19,752 assaults. During that same time there were zero assaults in all the cyber charter schools combined. Safe education with high SAT scores. Hard combo to beat.

Dr. James Hanak is CEO of the PA Leadership Charter School.