Feinberg and Gleason weigh in on the growing call for cyber charter funding reform–finally– in Pennsylvania.
Gov. Josh Shapiro and a growing number of legislators from both sides of the aisle are calling for changes to the way cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania operate and are funded. And more importantly, once you know the truth, you should too.
Despite what the ads say, cyber charter schools are not “free.” School districts and their taxpayers are required to pay tuition to the cyber charter school for every student that enrolls. Each of the 500 school districts in the state pay a different rate – up to $26,500 for a non-special education student. Yet, the cyber charter school provides the same education no matter where in the state a student comes from and receives the same funding as brick-and-mortar charter schools despite having only a fraction of the same costs.
When it comes to special education, cyber charters receive a flat, one-size-fits-all tuition payment for the student regardless of the student’s needs which results in millions of dollars in overpayments. Here’s how it works – a student requiring speech therapy as part of their special education program costs the cyber charter an extra $5,000, yet the school district is forced to pay as much as an extra $40,000 for that student. No one is suggesting that these students receive less funding or services. But districts and taxpayers should be paying fairly based on a student’s needs.
Cyber charter schools claim that they only receive 75% of the funding of traditional public schools. But that’s simply not true. In the 2021-22 school year, charter schools received $19,455 per student while school districts received $20,646 per student. That’s only 6.1% less – less than a quarter of what is claimed. When you consider the fact that school districts have numerous expenses and mandates that do not apply to charter schools, such as paying tuition to charter schools (which was a $2.6 billion expense in 2021-22) this difference in funding makes perfect sense.