What Gov. Tom Wolf's budget proposal means for charter schools, your district
Gov. Tom Wolf's 2015-16 budget proposal revamps charter and cyber school funding, a move one charter school advocacy group said would shut down Pennsylvania's charter schools.
Charter schools are privately operated public schools, funded by taxpayer dollars funneled from a student's home school district.
Wolf's proposed $400 million increase in the state's basic education subsidy restores a roughly 10 percent charter school tuition payment reimbursement for school districts. The practice of reimbursing districts ended under the tenure of Wolf's predecessor Gov. Tom Corbett.
The loss of charter school tuition reimbursement has exacerbated Lehigh Valley school districts' budget woes. For instance, the Bethlehem Area School District lost $15.4 million in charter school reimbursements in recent years.
The Keystone Alliance for Public Charter Schools said Wolf's budget severely limits a charter school's ability to provide a high quality education to students and removes school choice as an option for families.
"What the governor proposed today is a budget that would effectively shut down charter schools across Pennsylvania," alliance Executive Director Tim Eller said Tuesday.
Wolf is proposing that charter schools be audited annually and forced to return money they don't spent on students to their chartering school district.
"Although the governor targets charter school fund balances, he fails to point out that traditional public school districts have amassed fund balances totaling more than $1.7 billion -- more than 10 times the amount held by charter schools," Eller said. "If the governor is going to require charter schools to return excess funds to school districts, he should also require school districts to return their excess funds to taxpayers.
Charter schools receive about 20 percent less in per-pupil funding than traditional schools to account for district's transportation and other costs that don't disappear when a child attends a new school.
"Fund balances help charter schools balance their budgets by financing unforeseen costs, year-to-year revenue shortfalls and emergency expenses," Eller said.
Wolf is also wants to make permanent the ban on the charter school pension "double dip" payment. "Double dip" refers to the practice of charter schools receiving at least a 50 percent state reimbursement for their employee pension costs in addition to having it completely paid for by school district tuition payments.
Wolf is proposing a new cyber charter school funding plan that he says reflects the difference in operating costs for cyber and brick-and-mortar schools. The administration estimates based on 2013-14 school year data, Pennsylvania's 500 districts would save about $162 million.
The reform plan sets the regular education student tuition rate at $5,950 and annually What Gov. Tom Wolf's budget proposal means for charter schools, your district | lehighvalleylive.com:
