Cyber charter schools were hit with major reforms in this year’s Pennsylvania state budget—for both finances and operation policy.
Cyber charters are funded by local school districts—based on rules that were mostly written in the 1990s. Debates on how to update funding laws have been a major sticking point in Harrisburg for years, but the topic saw breakthrough in this budget.
A new Pennsylvania law, part of this year’s budget negotiations, cuts how much school districts have to pay cyber charter schools.
The budget office estimates $178 million in cuts to cyber charters, that will let school districts keep funds.
Some education advocates are applauding the changes.
“We are very far from being done with cyber charter funding reforms, but this is a really good step in the right direction,” said Susan Spicka, executive director for the advocacy group Education Voters of Pennsylvania.
Cyber charter tuition rates are based on what a student’s local district pays per student, minus some deductions. The new law expands the list of deductions to include tax collection costs, some extra curricular costs (like sports or theatre programs), and cyber charter payments themselves.
Previous deductions included transportation costs and federal grant dollars.
“Cyber charters have wildly different and lower expenses than school districts,” Spicka said. “Yet they have been for 20 plus years, paid as though they are just like the school district that the students being sent from.”
With 500 school districts in Pennsylvania, cyber charters can receive 500 different tuition rates. Critics say this payment structure does not reflect the actual cost of running a cyber school
“Things have just gotten really out of whack in terms of like, too much funding for cyber charter schools,” Spicka said. “And then also many cyber charter schools not being particularly good stewards of the dollars.”
An auditor general report this year said some cyber charters have excessive reserves. Reform advocates say beyond reserves, the schools are excessive spenders on non education related items.
“Wasting money on enormous advertising costs, with agency fees that are 15%,” Spicka said. “Taking this money and just, you know, shunting it out into things that have nothing to do with educating students.”
Commonwealth charter academy, the largest cyber charter school in the state, called the changes “irresponsible, inappropriate, and unjustifiable” in an email statement.
“To date, the General Assembly has conducted no formal studies or held no formal hearings to understand the real costs of operating a fully comprehensive public cyber charter school program,” said Tim Eller, CEO of Commonwealth Charter Academy in the statement. “Instead, this cut has been derived from negotiations to satisfy a give-back to school districts.”
In Pennsylvania, 64,000 students attend one of fourteen cyber charter schools—where they can receive an education entirely online.
