Written by Don Byrd
Nearly three years ago, the school board of Pocono Mountain, Pennsylvania voted to rescind the license of the Pocono Mountain Charter School. The decision followed an investigation that revealed the school was sending taxpayer money to a church run by the head of the school, Dennis Bloom. The appeal of that revocation has taken years to complete, (during which time Reverend Bloom pled guilty to tax evasion charges), but today the State’s Charter Appeal Board voted 7-0 to revoke the school’s charter.
In issuing the board’s decision, acting Education Secretary William Harner, who serves as appeals board chairman, said there was “excessive entanglement” between the finances of the school and the church, Shawnee Tabernacle.
“Significant expenditures of the school benefited the church,” Harner said.
Taxpayers have a right to expect their education funds are used for just that, and not to promote religion. Charter school systems and other efforts to privatize education should be implemented only with strong safeguards in place to prevent the kinds of alleged entanglements that landed the Pocono School in trouble. School may appeal in state court, according to Lehigh Valley’s Morning Call.
