CHARTER SCHOOLS

Commonsense Cyber Charter School Funding Reform Will Eliminate Wasteful Spending and Save $290 Million in Taxpayer Money

Cyber charter schools have materially lower costs than either traditional public schools or brick and mortar charter schools, where teachers are in the same classrooms as their students. Cyber charter schools deliver their education over the internet to students in their own homes, typically with a laptop computer that is provided by the cyber charter school. They frequently use recorded programs that can be re-used in many classes or for students individually. Infrastructure is greatly reduced. Despite this different cost structure, they are paid the same as brick and mortar charter schools.

In 2015, the Pennsylvania legislature enacted a new school funding formula that based funding on actual student enrollment and other cost factors. This was a major step forward in correcting a decades-old, deeply flawed, and inequitable system of funding public school districts. The legislature has not yet addressed similar flaws in Pennsylvania’s system for funding cyber charter schools. With an annual price tag over $519 million, funding of cyber charter schools remains just as flawed as the old system of funding basic education was, and has created ever worsening problems for our state’s school districts and wasted tax monies. We recommend adopting commonsense cyber charter school funding reform to eliminate wasteful spending, saving $290 million in taxpayer money, and mitigating the harm that cyber charter schools cause to Pennsylvania’s public school districts.

In this report, we recommend adopting commonsense cyber charter school funding reform to eliminate wasteful spending, saving $290 million in taxpayer money, and mitigating the harm that cyber charter schools cause to Pennsylvania’s public school districts.