Another PA Cyber Charter In Trouble - Is New Jersey Next?

Just read this on Jersey Jazzman Blog and felt it needed to be distributed......

FBI agents on Thursday raided the office of Pennsylvania Charter Cyber School founder Nick Trombetta, who is suspected of misusing Pennsylvania tax dollars to fund his out-of-state ventures, KDKA News reports. The FBI raided the administrative offices of PA Cyber and other ventures founded by Trombetta, including the Avanti Management Group -- a for-profit consultant firm based in Ohio. The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, founded in 2000, enrolled more than 11,300 students in the 2011-12 academic year and has an annual budget of more than $100 million. Critics say the $10,000 the school receives for each child far exceeds the cost of educating a student online, and that the excess money has gone to other Trombetta ventures such as the National Network of Digital Schools and the Lincoln Interactive, which develops and markets online curriculum. These ventures have spawned cyber schools nationwide, and a federal investigation is now underway to determine if Trombetta personally profited. Even Gov. Tom Corbett agrees that Pennsylvania has to put the brakes on cyber schools. Of course, when eight out of 12 cybers in the state don't even make Adequate Yearly Progress, it's kind of hard to justify continuing to shovel money at them - no matter how many ads they buy with taxpayer funds to sell themselves. But, hey, here in Jersey, we're plowing right ahead! I mean, who are the NJDOE or the state BOE or the Legislature to question industry shills who tell us to ignore these schools' records of failure? How dare stakeholders like the NJEA and the NJ School Boards Association - normally not the best of buds - come together to block this "progress"! So ignore the facts, ignore the record, ignore the stories of corruption, ignore what other states are doing. After all: it's all for the kids.