The Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) recently released an important study about increased charter and cyber charter school tuition payments for the 2020-2021 school year.

PASBO predicts that school district payments to charter schools will increase by nearly $475 million in the 2020-2021 school year.  Total charter school tuition payments are estimated to reach a staggering $2.76 billion in 2020-2021.

About $125 million of this increase is not related to new enrollment. Instead, it is the result of a baked-in increase in tuition rates that is calculated in Pennsylvania’s charter school law.

School districts also expect to pay an additional $350 million or more in tuition because of an increase in enrollment in cyber charters of approximately 24,000 students. These are students who chose to leave school districts, brick-and-mortar charters, and private/religious schools to enroll in a cyber charter school this school year.

PASBO has estimated cyber charter school enrollment increases and the total charter school tuition increases at the county level for 2020-2021 and created a map to show the average increase in property taxes needed to fully cover the growth in charter school tuition costs for each county. The impact on each individual district will vary based on its own enrollment.

For example, if you click on Huntingdon County, you will see that there is an estimated increase in cyber charter school enrollment of 92 students in the county. Taxpayers will spend $1.44 million more in charter school tuition than in the previous year. In order to pay for this charter school tuition increase, school districts in Huntingdon County will need to raise property taxes an average of 8.04%.

From the PASBO press release (emphasis mine):

As one of the fastest growing mandated costs that school districts have to grapple with, charter school tuition costs increase each year as a result of the charter school tuition calculation itself and increased charter school enrollment. In fact, charter school tuition costs increased by $1.4 billion between 2013-14 and 2018-19. And since there is no state funding or subsidy to school districts for charter school tuition costs, these cost increases are largely paid for by property taxes—with the average school district spending (after covering increases in special education costs) 44 cents of each $1 of new property taxes between 2013-14 and 2018-19 on charter school tuition increases alone.

The press release continues:

As school districts continue to navigate the many health, safety, educational and financial challenges of operating in a pandemic, the $475 million increase in charter school tuition adds insult to injury, effectively zeroing out most of the federal funds provided to schools under the CARES Act. On top of that, for many school districts, this charter school cost increase exceeds the amount that their Act 1 Index rate can raise in property taxes.

What needs to happen to prevent increased cyber charter school tuition costs from inflicting devastating harm on our local public schools and forcing substantial property tax increases for the 2021-2022 school year? 

1. In the short term, state and federal lawmakers must provide additional aid to school districts that will help mitigate the staggering increase in cyber charter school tuition costs. If school districts do not receive additional aid this school year, they will be forced to enact large-scale cuts in programs, teachers and services for students and property tax increases and/or drain their fund balances when they complete their 2021-2022 budgets.
2. In the long term, state lawmakers must support charter school funding reforms to rein in charter school costs to districts. The current funding system is simply unsustainable.

After the election we will have a lot of work to do.  In the meantime, if you have not already voted by mail or early voted in person, happy voting tomorrow.