Superintendents call for reform of ‘flawed’ charter school funding formula
Superintendents from Lehigh and Berks counties spoke about the need for charter school funding reform at a news conference Friday by Keystone Center for Charter Change at the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
“People need to understand that Pennsylvanians are paying for two publicly funded systems: the public schools and then the publicly funded, but privately run [and] unaccountable charter industry,” said Bethlehem Area School District Superintendent Joseph Roy at the virtual talk.
Roy was joined by superintendents Mark Madson of Parkland, Jennifer Holman of Northwestern Lehigh and Christian Temchatin of Kutztown Area. The discussion was hosted by Larry Feinberg, director of Keystone Center for Charter Change at PBSA and school board vice president for the Haverford Township School District in Delaware County.
The superintendents represent rural, urban and suburban districts, and though the size and demographics of their districts vary, all agreed there’s a need for state reform of charter school funding to fairly serve district students and taxpayers.
“The funding formula that the state is currently using, we believe, is flawed,” Madson said.
The 2022 State of Education Report from PBSA found 78% of districts in Pennsylvania identified charter school tuition payments as their top budget pressure, and more than 400 school districts out of the 500 in the state have passed resolutions calling on the General Assembly to pass charter funding reform.
Gov. Tom Wolf has also called for more equitable charter school tuition and has proposed reform to the charter school law in his proposed budget, projected to save districts $373 million.
Specifically, the superintendents said cyber charter funding and special education funding at charter schools are inequitable and force districts to overpay for charter students.
“Tuition for cyber charter and charter students is based on the home district cost, not what it costs to educate a student in that school that they actually attend,” Holman explained. “We need a more equitable funding formula [for] what it actually costs to educate a child in a virtual environment.”
Holman said Northwestern Lehigh is expected to spend $2.1 million of its $50 million budget on about 120 students attending charter schools for next school year. She also said the district’s digital academy educates students for one-third of the cost the district pays in tuition to send a student to a cyber charter school.
Madson said Parkland’s cyber charter costs for this school year are about $6.8 million compared to $3.8 million spent by the district in 2017-18.
“That is, for us, a significant amount of funding that we are putting out to these charter schools,” he said. “And it’s a huge impact to us, especially for our taxpayers.”
The Parkland School Board just approved its proposed $216.2 million budget earlier this week with a 1.2% property tax increase — the first tax hike in two years.
Roy echoed the superintendents’ concerns with cyber charter funding and said special education funding for charter schools also needs to be reformed.
Bethlehem charter schools are receiving $6 million in excess tuition for special education because of the current funding formula. Charter schools receive tuition based on the average amount the district spends to educate a special education student.
Districts, however, are reimbursed special education funds based on three categories of need for special education students. Roy said the average sent
to charters is inflated because public schools educate more special education students who have higher needs than charter schools do.
Roy added that BASD has 2,000 students who attend charter schools and 13,000 who remain in the district’s public schools. He said the district is budgeting about $34 million in charter school tuition for the upcoming school year, which lands about even with the district’s basic education funding.
“The money that’s supposed to be coming to support our educational instructional programs, really goes right back out the door,” he said.
The superintendents also noted school boards for charter schools are not publicly elected, but rather privately appointed, and administration costs are not required to be shared with the public as is the case with public schools.
Charter school tuition payments are top of mind for many district leaders and taxpayers as districts move to finalize their budgets for 2022-23 next month.
“I’m talking about fair funding,” Roy said. “Districts will have the money to invest in their own kids and or can avoid tax increases just by fixing the funding formula and mak[ing] charter schools’ funding more on a level playing field to school districts’ [funding].”