Today, the New York Times published an article featuring multiple (and mostly anonymous) attacks on online learning in Pennsylvania and other states. The article made several references to the Agora Cyber Charter School ("Agora"). One of the many things the article failed to mention is that Agora and its dedicated professionals are succeeding every day in meeting some of the most difficult educational challenges presented by its students.

The orchestrated tactics in the article have been utilized by opponents of public school options for years in Pennsylvania and other states. Some in Pennsylvania simply refuse to accept the notion that parents should be involved in public education decision-making for their children, or that public education dollars should follow students to the public schools best for them, rather than funneled through the existing and broken old system just to protect certain bureaucracies.

The New York Times article is simply wrong on many key points:

• Agora is a public school. It is chartered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and operated and controlled by a non-profit board of trustees. Agora is not a for-profit school. The author of the article either knows that there is no such thing as a for-profit charter school in Pennsylvania or she simply did not do adequate research into the issue. Agora, just as every other public school in Pennsylvania, contracts with private companies to provide curriculum, goods and services.
• Agora receives only a fraction of the funding that traditional brick and mortar public schools do to educate students. Agora collects and spends on average about 20% less taxpayer dollars on every student that chooses to leave a school district and voluntarily enroll with Agora than what the district would have spent. The additional money not collected and spent by Agora remains with the traditional public school even though that school is relieved of the responsibility of educating the student. The article also completely ignores the innovative approaches Agora has and is implementing to meet the extreme academic challenges many our students bring with them as a result of the failings of the schools they have left. These include the use of Reading and Math Specialists, the Family Teacher Coach program, and the Agora bricks-and-mortar Learning Centers.
• The article contains a chart purporting that Agora's per-student funding is $10,935. This, too, is inaccurate. For the 2010–11 school year, the average reimbursement rate for General Education students is approximately $8600 per pupil, or 20% lower than is reported in the chart.
• The Agora board is proud that its families and students choose to stand up and be counted when the Legislature considers measures directly impacting the school. Opponents of public school options are consistently seeking ways to take this educational opportunity away from Pennsylvania's parents. It is offensive to our dedicated families that the article suggests they are somehow motivated by anything other than the best interest of their children.
• The Agora Board has instituted a rigorous enrollment policy to help make sure parents and students who choose Agora understand the commitment and dedication it will take to succeed at our school. Each prospective family and student is given information on online learning, and and has an in-person, face-to-face visit to be sure they fully understand the school.
• Many Students come to Agora because the district where they live has failed them. Many students enter Agora academically well-behind grade level proficiency. Just as an example, about half of incoming 6th graders would need to make two or more years of academic growth in less than a single school year in order to be ranked proficient on the state exam in the spring. The student's proficiency is more a reflection of the school the student left than it is of Agora. Seventy percent of Agora's students are classified "at risk," a far higher percentage than most other cyber schools. Agora is helping to address some of the state's most difficult educational challenges. The static measures cited in the article simply fail to recognize these facts. Additionally, of online schools in Pennsylvania serving a similar student population to Agora's, not a single school has met all AYP standards, which are really a measure of the significant achievement gaps that most students of Agora and other online schools arrive with. We work diligently and effectively at closing these achievement gaps, though not in a manner that is easily or quickly reflected in the way that AYP calculations are designed.

The Agora Board is proud of the school it operates. It is unfortunate that the New York Times chose to rely on sources who provided unreliable information in support of an ulterior and negative agenda, and in doing so published an article that included so many errors and misstatements about our school.