charter school industry who rolled out grievances long debunked that cyber charters are treated unfairly.
Let’s set the record straight.
Despite marketing themselves as a top-choice option, cyber charter schools are the lowest performing schools in the Commonwealth. They position themselves as being the alternative to low-performing schools, but their track record of student performance is abysmal. Every one of the 14 cyber charter schools operating in PA has been flagged by the state Department of Education as needing improvement.
No, they don’t deserve a bigger cut of the increased state funding dedicated to remedying decades of discriminatory underfunding that denied public school students a quality education. More funding leads to better student performance because it allows schools to lower class sizes, hire specialists and counselors, and build stronger academic and extracurricular programming. But cyber charters never had to deal with building costs and repairs and paying for a full complement of staff, so they don’t need to “catch up.”
A state audit of five cyber charters released earlier this year found that their revenue had nearly doubled from 2020 to 2023, and their financial reserves had increased by nearly 150% in that period.
Pennsylvania cyber charters are paid handsomely by local school districts. Local schools must pay cyber charters about the same as it costs to educate that student in person. Don’t be fooled when cyber charters claim they started way behind. That was never true.
Cyber charter funding reform enacted last year is not creating a financial hardship for the industry. Last year Pennsylvania’s auditor general stated that cyber tuition is not aligned with the actual cost of instruction. Recognizing that cyber charters were fleecing taxpayers, a bipartisan legislature approved reforms that reduced what school districts pay cyber charters.
The cyber industry is actively fighting cyber charter accountability reforms enacted last year that are protecting students and taxpayers. Lawmakers responded to cases of abuse and neglect by requiring that cyber charters see students on screen at least once a week to check on their well-being, to verify that student actually live in the district that’s paying their tuition, and to not allow habitually truant students to transfer from brick-and-mortar schools to cyber charters mid-year. It is unconscionable that academic institutions would push back on smart, bipartisan reforms that protect kids.
Advocates are counting on at least $75 million more in savings this year in order to fully reform the way taxpayers fund cyber charters, so it’s important to set the record straight so lawmakers are equipped with the facts and can ensure that every PA student gets an education that prepares them to thrive.
