Cyber school tuition criticized as unfair
HARRISBURG – A festering dispute over the state’s 13 cyber schools, their funding and students’ sagging test scores is reigniting in Harrisburg.
A proposal tacked onto an annual education budget bill alters the formula for how much local school districts pay to the virtual campuses, and how online schools are managed.
Rep. Mike Reese, R-Westmoreland County, said he is calling for “sensible changes” to the funding of cyber schools. That includes allowing local schools to deduct the costs of collecting taxes and providing library services when they make payments to the cyber charters.
They are part of a broader update he proposes to the law governing charter schools.
The bill also creates a panel to determine if there’s a better way to calculate how much school districts pay in cyber charter tuition. The plan includes a host of other rules for bookkeeping, ethics, and oversight of charters, as well.
Pennsylvania’s 13 cyber charters enroll 36,000 students. Collectively they represent the second-largest school district in the state, behind Philadelphia’s.
The online schools are far more popular in Pennsylvania than elsewhere.
While cyber schools are legal in 35 states, those in Pennsylvania, Ohio and California account for more than half of the enrollment of virtual schools in the United States.
Supporters and critics of the online schools agree that too many students slip off the radar while moving Cyber school tuition criticized as unfair | Local News | sharonherald.com:
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