Debate continues over cyber charter funding as bill looks to cap payments

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — Governor Josh Shapiro asked lawmakers to cap tuition payments to cyber charter schools, which districts have been complaining about for years.

But, many students and parents have succeeded with online education and enrollment has spiked. Now, there’s a new development in the fight for funding.

“I kind of feel like it’s Groundhog Day at these hearings, to be honest with you,” State Rep. Marc Anderson (R-York).

Anderson is a former public school teacher and administrator who doesn’t automatically bash cyber charters for siphoning cash from public school districts.

“Start asking the question, why are so many kids going to cyber charter schools? I really haven’t heard anybody answer that,” Anderson says.

The more kids that go, the bigger the check school districts must write.

“We’re drowning in what we’re paying these cyber schools,” Rep. Joe Ciresi (D-Montgomery) said. “Our districts are begging for reform.”

He believes his bill, House Bill 1372, is providing it. The bill would cap tuition payments, currently all over the map, at $8,000. He estimates districts would save $600 million a year. Charters say it would crush them.

“We would have to seriously look at operations and have to pare back most, if not a vast majority of it,” Tim Eller, with Commonwealth Charter Academy.

The bill has a new wrinkle. If a local school offers cyber learning and is approved by the Department of Education, students would have to go there. Districts wouldn’t have to pay others

“They’re already created,” Rep. Nikki Rivera (D-Lancaster) said. “If your school district meets this, this, this, and you have a sound cyber charter in-house, why would our taxpayers have to pay additional for outside cyber charter?”

Because, Eller would argue, enrollment suggests parents want what his cyber school is offering.

“Parents should have a right to choose where they send their children, whether it’s public, nonpublic, private,” Eller said. “The money should follow the student. Parents are taxpayers, too.”

Which brings us back to the Groundhog Day debate that won’t likely be ending anytime soon.