Jul 16, 2019 2 min read

The editorial board’s recent push for more state involvement with cyber schools and fewer options for parents (June 30 editorial) is misguided.

School districts from Penn Hills to Harrisburg to Scranton have shown government accountability in Pennsylvania does not work. Closer to home, we see the Washington School District spending more than over $18,000 per student, yet they continually experience poor academic outcomes.

Meanwhile, enrollment in Pennsylvania cyberschools continues to grow. Clearly, the benefits cyberschools offer attract parents and students, including the ability to work at your own pace, safety, and more family time. If cyberschools are satisfying families at 30% lower costs than district schools, that’s a plus for all Pennsylvanians.

Every student deserves to thrive in the best school for their unique needs. Highest accountability is found in parental choice. When parents and their children can walk away, schools – whether brick and mortar or cyber – must improve their education, or else they lose students.

Cyberschools give students who are unhappy with their traditional school district a much-needed alternative. Pennsylvania can enact more robust accountability by funding students, rather than school districts. Doing so would empower students and parents to hold Pennsylvania’s schools accountable.

Another way to increase educational opportunity and accountability is through education scholarship accounts (ESAs). By empowering parents to customize their children education, ESAs would increase accountability across the board.

Pennsylvanian students need more options, not fewer. By expanding student choice, educational accountability will improve across all sectors, including cyberschools.

Micah Pepper

Public Policy Intern

Commonwealth Foundation