Democrats for Pa. governor target charter schools

The four Democratic gubernatorial candidates are promising to take a hard line against charter and cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania.

The candidates met at Friday’s two-hour forum at the annual convention of the Pennsylvania College Democrats at Temple University.

All four are public school boosters. Republican Gov. Tom Corbett has sought to promote private, parochial and charter schools.

Former Clinton White House environmental adviser Katie McGinty says she’d refuse taxpayer money for any charter school operated by a for-profit company. U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz says she’d defund cyber charter schools altogether and put the money into early childhood education programs.

State Treasurer Rob McCord says he’d need a lot more evidence before funding acyber charter schools, while businessman Tom Wolf says it’s hard to justify the existence of cyber charters.