Charter schools push back on new fees

• Ed Mahon
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  Ed Mahon comes to Spotlight PA from PA Post, where he covered state politics and policy, produced radio stories that were broadcast on public media stations throughout the state and on NPR’s national newscasts, and co-wrote a weekday newsletter. Prior to joining PA Post, Ed worked for six years as an investigative and political reporter for the York Daily Record, part of the USA Today Network. His reporting on failures in Pennsylvania’s system for protecting domestic abuse victims was a finalist in the national 2018 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists in the local reporting category. He was also part of a team whose coverage of the criminal justice system, including the aggressive use of civil asset forfeiture by York County prosecutors, received the 2018 G. Richard Dew Award for Journalistic Service from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. Before joining the York Daily Record, Ed covered K-12 education at the Centre Daily Times in State College and worked as a stringer for suburban sections of The Philadelphia Inquirer. He grew up in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

 Ed Mahon / PA Post

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf speaks at a news conference on June 28, 2019, in the state Capitol, with preschool children sitting behind him.

Ed Mahon / PA Post

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf speaks at a news conference on June 28, 2019, in the state Capitol, with preschool children sitting behind him. (Ed Mahon/PA Post)

Democratic gov. wants big reforms to charter system

• PennLive’s Jan Murphy breaks down the fight over new fees that Gov. Tom Wolf announced last week: charging $15 to a charter school every time it asks the state Department of Education to settle a funding dispute with a school district; and charging an $86,000 fee on new cyber charter school applicants, starting next year.

• Maurice Flurie, CEO of the Harrisburg-based Commonwealth Charter Academy, said the $15 fee “defies logic,” and he said the $86,000 fee for cyber charter school applications will essentially create a moratorium on cyber charters.

• WHYY’s Avi Wolfman-Arent also looks at the clash over charter schools and the fight that is expected to take place as lawmakers return to Harrisburg. Wolfman-Arent tells the story of Stefaine D’Amico, who said her oldest son turned to a cyber charter school after being bullied at public and Catholic schools.

• Wolfman-Arent also tells the story of Beth Pacoe, a mother who found distance learning didn’t work for her then-sixth grader.

• As Wolfman-Arent notes, Pennsylvania ranks high for the number of cyber charter school students, part of the “big three.” California and Ohio are the other two states in the group.

Best of the rest

Malcolm Gladwell seen on day two of Summit LA17 in Downtown Los Angeles’s Historic Broadway Theater District on Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

• Malcolm Gladwell, the best-selling author, devotes part of his new book to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal and the prosecution of former Penn State leaders. PennLive’s Charlie Thompson, who has covered the Sandusky case for years, describes Gladwell’s argument in the book  and some facts Gladwell left out or didn’t focus on.

• Shane Gillis, who graduated from a central Pennsylvania high school, won’t be joining the cast of Saturday Night Live. BuzzFeed News reports that Gillis was fired “after past derogatory and racist remarks he made on his podcast were made public.”

• The Wolf administration has a new rule that limits the number of people who can rally in the state Capitol’s rotunda. WITF’s Katie Meyer spoke with activist Germán Parodi, who criticized the 450-person limit. “What I foresee is them completely separating politicians from their electorate,” he said.