House Democrats want to find common ground with Republicans on public cybersecurity schools. (Stock photo: Getty Images)
Amid an ongoing budget impasse, Democratic House lawmakers have offered Republicans a compromise that sees public online schools as a lifesaver for parents whose children are struggling in classic schools.
The Commonwealth’s 14 taxpayer-funded cybersecurity statutes have come under scrutiny for soaring bank balances and questionable spending under a funding system that has not been updated since online services were allowed a quarter of a century ago.
A bill passed in the House earlier this month and pending in the Senate includes a recent method for calculating the amount school districts must pay for each student enrolled in a cyber charter. This would save an estimated $173 million across the commonwealth’s 500 public school districts, according to the House Democratic Caucus.
Susan Spicka, director of the public school advocacy group Education Voters PA, said it would be a significant achievement, even though the cost reductions are a fraction of what a single statewide tuition rate would achieve.
“Is this all we need? Absolutely not. But is it a step in the right direction? Yes,” Spicka said. “It’s very out of the norm for Pennsylvania to say that we’re taking a serious look at these cyber cards and taking a significant step to make the system for financing them a little bit more rational.”
Tim Eller, director of branding and government relations for Commonwealth Charter Academy, the state’s largest cyber school, said the reduction would be equivalent to a 21% reduction in the school’s $500 million budget. He believes the impact will be significant.
“Would it change us completely? I don’t think it would completely change us,” Eller said, adding that CCA, which has about 34,000 students, would handle the change better than smaller cyber schools. “You can’t lose $100 million and continue as is.”
House Education Committee Chairman Peter Schweyer (D-Lehigh) said the main problem with online schools is that tuition has little relationship to the actual costs of running online schools.
“There are things that school districts pay for and cyber schools get reimbursed for and no one can explain why,” Schweyer said, noting that costs such as property maintenance and athletic programs are not included in online charters.
Senate Education Committee Chair Lynda Schlegel Culver (R-Northumberland) was not available for an interview this week. A Culver spokesman said the proposal was not approved and that Culver supports fully funding all public school options so parents can choose the best education for their children.
Under the Commonwealth’s charter school laws, public school districts must pay for each student attending a charter school the same amount they pay for students in their own buildings.
Because each district in Pennsylvania sets its own budget and per-pupil spending rate, a single charter school can receive a wide range of tuition from each school to which it attracts students.
Amounts ranged from $6,975 to $25,150 for elementary students and $18,329 to $60,166 for special education students.
One of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s education priorities when he unveiled his $51.6 billion budget plan in February was to establish flat statewide tuition for cyber charter schools. His office estimated it would save school districts $600 million that could be spent on programs in classic schools.
This plan was also part of Shapiro’s 2024-2025 spending proposal, but Republican Auditor General Timothy DeFoor has since released the results a three-year financial audit of five cybersecurity charters. It showed budget reserves that increased by 144% and “unusual” spending practices, such as paying bonuses to teachers and the purchase of 21 physical properties by CSW.
Republicans, whose approval in the Senate is needed to pass the budget, strongly oppose Shapiro’s flat-tuition proposal, saying it would hurt cybersecurity laws and limit parents’ choices about where to send their children for public education.
“If we can’t reach consensus on a flat rate, can we at least agree that we shouldn’t spend money on things cyber schools don’t need?” Schweyer said, adding that cyber studies students have the right to participate in extracurricular activities in the districts where they live.
When the House passed its latest budget plan earlier this month, it approved it as well Senate Bill 315. The legislation, introduced by Culver as a bill to make career and technical education funding more predictable, was amended in the House to include recent categories of expenses that school districts could deduct from cyber charter tuition.
“We do not reimburse cyber schools for any bus transportation,” Schweyer said. “We’re creating new deductions based on things that cyber schools don’t provide.”
These would include tuition fees for non-special education students, costs of tax assessment and collection services, 60% of student operating costs, and 60% of building operation and maintenance costs.
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Dylan Wyatt, director of advocacy for the Pennsylvania School Business Officials Association, said additional deductions are a good first step.
“I think a lot of districts were hoping that some type of flat rate bill would be passed, knowing that it would be a difficult task for our Legislature,” he said.
If passed, the deductions would replace the $100 million refund for community college tuition that was included in the last budget. Because the amount each district received was based on the number of charter school students, some would receive more relief if the reimbursement remained in place.
However, Wyatt added that if the remainder of Shapiro’s education proposal becomes part of the final budget, most districts will be in a better financial position after the deduction.
Shapiro’s proposal includes $526 million in Ready to Learn block grants, which are used to distribute funds to the state’s most underfunded school districts. So-called adequacy funding was included in the latest 2023 budget following a court ruling that found the state’s reliance on property taxes to fund education was unconstitutional.
He also called for a $75 million enhance in basic education funding and $40 million in special education funding. Both budget bills passed in the Democratic-led House included all three increases, while the Senate proposals provided for lump-sum funding for education.
“If we see … what the governor has proposed in addition to cybersecurity deductions, most school districts would be in a better position,” Wyatt said.
