Centre County school districts spend millions on cyber charters. Is change coming?

As Centre County schools prepare budgets for the 2024-2025 school year, charter tuition costs are a significant expense. But a bill in the Pennsylvania legislature could change how cyber charter schools are funded, putting millions back into the public school system.

House Bill 1422, a cyber charter funding reform bill, passed the state House in July with bipartisan support but has sat in the Senate education committee for months. HB 1422 would set a single statewide $8,000 tuition rate for non-special education students for all cyber schools. For special education student tuition, the existing three-tier special education funding formula used for school districts would be applied.

The bill would also require transparency in advertising expenses, cap cyber charter’s unassigned fund balances, require student wellness checks and prohibit the use of taxpayer dollars to fund field trips or enrollment incentives.

Charter schools are independently run but taxpayer-funded through public schools. For every student that enrolls in a brick-and-mortar or cyber charter school, their home district sends the per-student tuition to the charter school, minus some transportation and maintenance costs. The bill would only affect the funding formula for cyber charter programs, not brick-and-mortar charter schools.

Bellefonte Area School District’s proposed 2024-2025 budget sets aside $1.27 million in cyber charter tuition to cover costs for an estimated 60 students who will attend cyber charter schools outside the district. Bald Eagle Area School District is budgeting $1.6 million for both cyber and brick-and-mortar charter tuition costs for 2024-2025, a number interim superintendent Joseph Clapper said is “staggering.”

“Legislators created charter and cyber charter schools and then turned around and asked school districts to foot the bill,” Clapper wrote in an email to the CDT. “It seems to me that if charter and cyber charter schools are important to legislators, they should find a way to pay for them rather than simply sending the bill to public schools.”

For rural school districts like Bald Eagle Area, the financial pressures cyber charter tuition poses are heightened. Karen Eppley, a teaching professor at Penn State in Curriculum and Instruction and a co-author of a study on cyber charter enrollments and impacts on rural schools, said Pennsylvania rural schools experience extreme financial inequity.

“Rural district leaders across the state are experiencing increasing financial pressure due to cyber charter enrollment that in many cases has reached crisis proportions,” Eppley said. “Not only do cyber charter tuition payments affect the ability of the school district to provide needed instructional services and facility maintenance, but they threaten the viability of rural school district with smaller operating budgets.”

With Centre County schools spending millions in charter tuition each year, school boards across the county have advocated for charter tuition funding reform. In 2021, school boards in Centre, Clearfield and Clinton counties passed a joint resolution to support amending the charter funding formula.

Donna Smith, a Bellefonte Area school board member and advocate for charter funding reform, said cyber charter schools don’t operate under the same financial pressures that public schools have to. Public schools have increased maintenance and building costs as well as transportation costs for public and charter students.

“We have budget constraints,” Smith said. “If we need something we have to pass a tax increase. Cyber charters never have to be the bad guy because they reap the benefits when we pass the tax increase. So they can just spend spend, spend, but we’re the ones who have to answer to our locals.”

But proponents of cyber charter schools say the bill goes too far. Cyber charter advocates say cyber programs receive 75 cents on the dollar after school districts take out costs for transportation, maintenance and other deductions. Brian Hayden, CEO of Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, said HB 1422 could limit school choice and cause instability for students and cyber programs.

“Cyber charters would struggle to remain a competitive alternative to other schools,” Hayden wrote in a press release. “These cuts are an overcorrection to the current funding formula.”

Smith said the bill wouldn’t limit students’ cyber options, just force cyber charters to be more conservative with their spending, like public school districts. Several Centre County public schools also have their own form of cyber program for district students who want an online learning experience without leaving for charter, she said.

“It is a great option for some kids,” Smith said. “Some kids really do better learning in a cyber scenario. But we believe that we can do it better.”

With HB 1422 stuck in the Senate education committee, Smith’s confidence in the bill’s passing is waning, despite its widespread support. Centre County representatives Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte, Scott Conklin, D-Rush Township, and Paul Takac, D-College Township, all voted in support of the bill and Governor Josh Shapiro supported the $8,000 tuition flat rate during his February budget address.

But until Pennsylvania state senators see public support for charter reform, Smith said its likelihood of passing is slim at best.

“When the public gets involved, that’s when there’s a difference made,” Smith said. “They said that themselves until the general public gets involved, it will be status quo.”