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Pennsylvania sues cyber charter, alleging misuse of funds

The Pennsylvania Department of Education has sued Agora Cyber Charter School in Devon, Pa., alleging its board misused millions of taxpayer dollars to benefit a company owned by the school’s founder, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. The civil complaint maintains that the cyber charter’s board of trustees entered into unlawful contracts with Cynwyd Group LLC, a management company that the state says Agora founder Dorothy June Brown co-created "for the purpose of making money from managing and operating the school." Cynwyd was slated to collect $2.8 million from Agora to manage the school, though most of the work was done by another company. Opened in 2005, Agora enrolls 4,400 students from districts across the state. The students receive online instruction in their homes using computers paid for by taxpayers. The lawsuit is the state education department’s first against any cyber school in the state, said Michael Race, a department spokesman. Agora’s finances also are being investigated by the Philadelphia School District’s inspector general and by federal investigators as part of a widening probe of charter schools…

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