蘑菇视频

Sep 8, 2023 By James Dudt 4 min read

As the debate over cyber charter schools intensifies, Pennsylvanians deserve both facts and context in order to come to informed conclusions. Unfortunately, a recent story in the Observer-Reporter and 蘑菇视频, “Superintendents continue to call for cyber charter school reform,” has only some of the former and very little of the latter.

By way of groundwork, it’s worth emphasizing that cyber charter schools are public schools – just like traditional brick-and-mortar public schools, and just like brick-and-mortar public charter schools. Any conversation about cyber charter funding must be within the overall context of public education funding.

In Pennsylvania, funding for public education has increased steadily over the past decade, reaching an all-time high in 2020-21. Per-student spending has also trended upward, hitting $21,263 in the 2021-22 school year – thousands of dollars more than the national average.

Here in Southwest Pennsylvania, our local school districts’ spending per student reflects this robust funding. For example, per-student spending in Central Greene School District is $20,699, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. In the Jefferson-Morgan School District, it’s $19,957 In the Laurel Highlands School District, it’s $20,925. It’s $21,085 in the Washington School District, and $22,122 in the Burgettstown School District.

Cyber charter schools, on average, receive about 27% less per pupil than traditional public schools. That’s because cyber charter payments are based on a district’s per-pupil cost after subtracting certain items such as transportation and facilities. What happens to the remaining funding? It stays with the school district. This means districts keep revenue for students who leave to attend cyber charter schools.

I don’t know of any other enterprise in which you retain revenue for customers who choose to shop elsewhere – but that’s exactly what happens to school districts when students leave for charter options.

For example, the Jefferson-Morgan School District paid an average of $13,273 for every regular education student who attended a cyber charter school. But with a per-student revenue of nearly $20,000, Jefferson-Morgan kept more than $6,000 for every regular education student who left to attend a cyber charter.

Burgettstown School District paid approximately $16,583 for each regular education student who left to attend a cyber charter school. But this is more than $5,000 less than the district spends per pupil, meaning the district kept more than $5,000 per regular education cyber student whom it was no longer educating.

As districts complain about cyber charter payments, this important context is too-often missing from the conversation.

Those who clamor for charter “reform” also wave the flag of accountability. They claim cyber charter schools lag traditional public schools in accountability to taxpayers. Yet, the current “accountability” of traditional public schools means they are rewarded with funding increases each year regardless of how students perform and regardless of whether students leave to go elsewhere. That’s quite the setup.

Cyber charter schools, on the other hand, receive funding only when a student enrolls. And parents typically enroll their students in charter or cyber charter options because they’re dissatisfied with their zip-code-assigned, traditional public school. In other words, cyber charters are accountable to the parents and families who choose them and who can easily pull their children from them. This is the zenith of accountability.

Traditional public schools, on the other hand, can underperform for years and even decades, yet still receive funding increases with no questions asked. That’s the opposite of accountability.

When all is said and done, the goal of public education funding is to educate students – not to fund systems or buildings regardless of outcomes. Educators and advocates alike should celebrate when children have access to a quality education, whether traditional public, public brick-and-mortar charter, public cyber charter, private, parochial, homeschool or other.

But at the very least, we should all agree that both facts and context are critical in this all-important conversation about our children’s futures.

James Dudt is a supervisor of North Bethlehem Township in Washington County. His children are home-schooled.