My district is overpaying cybercharters $2.7M
On May 9 the Bethlehem Area School Board passed a proposed balanced budget for the 20222023 school year. This spending plan, which will be up for final adoption on June 20, will allow us to offer first-rate educational opportunities to our students while keeping taxes down in our community.
While I am excited about what’s ahead in the coming year, I also want to sound the alarm about the need for charter school funding reform.
The pandemic upended traditional schooling for many families, and the number of students enrolling in cybercharter schools in the Bethlehem district spiked by 92% since 2019. Enrollment in “brick and mortar” charter schools fell by 9% during this same period, which means the growth — and associated budget pressure — is due to cybercharter schools.
You have probably seen the advertisements claiming charter schools are “tuition-free public schools.” What those ads don’t say is Bethlehem Area School District taxpayers will pay nearly $35 million in charter school tuition in 2022-2023, making charters the second-highest cost driver after pensions.
The district pays $29,615 for every special education student and $13,393 for every nonspecial education student who enrolls in a cybercharter school, well above their actual costs. Cybercharter schools are not required to have elected school boards, which means local taxpayers have no say in how cybercharter schools spend their money.
Other states have found a better way and it is time for Pennsylvania to follow suit. A recent report from the PA Charter Performance Center, a project of Children First, takes a deep dive into funding and oversight policies in the 27 other states that allow cybercharter schools and offers some strategies for Pennsylvania.
First: Replace Pennsylvania’s wasteful cyber payment formula with a statewide tuition rate.
The Bethlehem District’s in-house cyber academy operates at less than half the cost of the cybercharter school tuition we are mandated to pay. Additionally, cybercharter schools receive the same tuition as brick and mortar charters, although their operating costs are substantially lower. But, Pennsylvania continues to pay both types of schools the same amount of tuition.
Eleven states have sharpened their pencils and pay cybercharter schools less than what brick and mortar charters receive. Pennsylvania should follow their lead by standardizing cyber
tuition statewide.
Gov. Wolf ’s most recent budget proposal would set a $9,800 rate and end special education overpayments, saving Bethlehem Area taxpayers $2.7 million annually.
Second: Taxpayers shouldn’t pay twice for online education.
Over 90% of school districts statewide offer online educational programs staffed by state-certified teachers. We are proud of the BASD cyber option we developed to meet the needs of students who opt for online learning and deliver a quality program at lower cost.
Public funding for cybercharter schools should be prohibited if a student’s home district
already offers an online education program whose educational track record is as good or better than the charter school.
Finally: The state auditor general should conduct regular audits to reduce the high risk of cybercharter school enrollment and performance fraud.
Nearly half of the state’s 14 cybercharter schools have never been reviewed by the state auditor, and the largest cybercharter school in the state, with a $270 million budget, was last audited a decade ago.
As recently as 2018, PA Cyber Charter’s CEO landed in prison for siphoning off $8 million in public funds. Other audits in Ohio and Indiana uncovered
even larger cybercharter school scandals totaling millions.
Auditor General Timothy DeFoor recently took a step in the wrong direction by disbanding the schools audit bureau and should reverse course by conducting regular reviews of cybercharters.
We cannot solve this problem at the local level. The rules for funding charter schools are set in state law, and the law has not been updated in 25 years. Join me in telling state lawmakers that their constituents want charter school funding reform.