Leadership on charter school reform applauded

Gov. Tom Wolf last week brought the long-simmering issue of charter school cost and accountability to the front lines, vowing executive action and legislative reform of the 22-year-old charter school option in Pennsylvania.

Speaking in Allentown flanked by public school officials, Wolf said he would take action to “level the playing field for all taxpayer-funded public schools, strengthen the accountability and transparency of charter and cyber charter schools and better serve all students.”

The specific reforms he promised would require transparency into the ownership and management of charters and give local districts the authority to limit enrollment in poor-performing schools. Currently, students can freely opt for a charter school and their local public school district pays the tuition.

In recent years, particularly with the growth of cyber charters, the cost to public schools has exploded. According to a statewide list compiled by PennLive, local district costs range from $2.7 million in Pottstown; $4 million in Souderton; $8.9 million in Norristown; $9.3 million in Reading; $5.8 million in Phoenixville, and up to $54.9 million in Chester-Upland.

Public schools take the most issue with cyber charters that provide online instruction without the expense of brickand-mortar schools and with poor to mediocre results.

School boards had strongly supported two reform proposals in the last legislative session that would allow public school districts to acknowledge their own cyber-learning programs as a competitive alternative to cyber charters.

House Bill 526 and Senate Bill 34 — neither of which made it to floor votes — could save $19.6 million in school taxes each year in Montgomery County alone, according to a March 2019 analysis by the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit.

The bills would put the burden of tuition onto the parents choosing a cyber charter if their home school district operates a comparable cyber program. The Senate bill was sponsored by Berks County’s State Sen. Judy Schwank, D11th Dist.

Besides the cost to local schools and taxpayers is the troubling lack of oversight or accountability required of charters.

Charter schools do not fall under state Department of Education regulation and are not held to the same performance standards as public schools.

A study earlier this year by Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes found that 81% of Pennsylvania’s charter schools perform below the 50th percentile for reading achievement, and about 87% perform below the 50th percentile in math achievement.

The results on the cyber charters were “overwhelmingly negative,” according to the study and require “urgent attention” from education leaders and lawmakers, the report said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Wolf promised last week to deliver on that call for urgency with executive action on proposed reforms.

Reaction from charter school proponents was harsh and swift, calling Wolf’s initiative a plan to kill school choice for Pennsylvania families. Ana Meyers, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, expressed outrage at the governor for not first consulting with charter school operators. She said the coalition would consider court action if the charter school law “is broken in any way.”

Those who support charters say that Wolf and legislators calling for reform are acting at the behest of state teachers’ unions.

Those who support reforms point out that charter school management companies are significant political contributors to legislative leadership which can keep reform bills from coming to votes.

And so it goes with politics in Harrisburg.

Charter school proponents say the system guarantees choice for families who want an alternative to a struggling public school. But it is a “choice” that leaves taxpayers with an unfair burden and no accountability in the charter school to meet performance standards.

That’s not a choice we can justify. Charter school reform is desperately needed in Pennsylvania, both to contain costs for taxpayers and to ensure educational standards are being met.

The governor’s leadership on this issue is timely and on target.