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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | April 16, 2013 04:23 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Jim Christiana |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | CharterWATCH Act |
| I am preparing to introduce legislation that will establish a searchable database detailing the revenues and expenditures of charter schools, regional charter schools and cyber charter schools. In 2011, the General Assembly enacted the Pennsylvania Web Accountability and Transparency (PennWATCH) Act, which established a searchable database providing detailed information concerning the budgets and expenditures of state agencies. Modeled after the PennWATCH Act, my bill will require the Department of Education (PDE) to create a similar database for charter schools, regional charter schools and cyber charter schools to be known as CharterWATCH. The CharterWATCH database will provide taxpayers with thorough information concerning the amount of funding received by charter school entities from federal, state, local and private sources, payments to outside entities, and employee compensation. Records that are not subject to disclosure under the Right-to-Know Law will not be included on the website. The charters of charter schools, regional charter schools and cyber charter schools failing to report information to PDE will not be renewed. In addition to my CharterWATCH legislation, I am also preparing to introduce separate, but related legislation that will establish a searchable database detailing the revenues and expenditures of school districts. Our constituents are proud that we chose to disclose how we spend their tax dollars with PennWATCH. The people of Pennsylvania deserve the same level of transparency from their charter schools. Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. |
Introduced as HB1412