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2 bills would help districts reduce costs

The growing trend of sending children to cyber charter schools is pinching the coffers of public school districts, which are required by state law to pay the tuition.

Now, school boards and administrators are eagerly watching what is happening in Harrisburg with two proposed bills in the Legislature related to funding cyber charter schools.

In the 2017-18 school year, the total cost to Lycoming County’s eight school districts to fund cyber education was $5.53 million.

The bills could provide relief.

Senate Bill 34 and House Bill 526 are being hailed as a way to help districts eliminate or reduce costs of charter school funding.

Under SB 34, parents would have the financial responsibility to pay for their child attending a non-public school option if their home district offered a cyber-based program equal in scope and content. As of the upcoming school year, all the local school districts are offering cyber school options, primarily taught through their Intermediate Unit, which local superintendents assert would cost the districts about half of what is spent to educate students through charter or cyber charter schools.

A similar bill, HB 526, was introduced in the House. One of its sponsors is state Rep. Garth Everett, R-Muncy. That bill has yet to make it to the House floor.

Everett said that one reason there hasn’t been much movement of the bill is because of its controversial subject.

“There are powerful forces in the General Assembly that support charter and cyber charter schools and make it difficult,” he said, noting that there are members in strategic leadership who decide which bills make it to the floor.

Both bills were refiled to the Education Committee earlier this year and that’s where they were, just days before the Legislature breaks for summer.

“Level the playing field” is a phrase both Everett and Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township, used to describe what needs to be done to alleviate the situation that districts are finding themselves in fiscally.

“I think the first thing that people need to realize is that cyber schools and charter schools are a part of the Pennsylvania educational system,” said Yaw.

“They’re there and they’re going to stay there. How do we deal with them?” he added.

Yaw noted that he agreed that charter schools need to be held to the same standards in terms of performance as public schools, but he also said he realizes that the biggest complaint of the public schools is the financial aspect.

“When the student leaves, the money follows the student,” he said.

“If someone wants to go to a parochial school, the money stays and they (the parents) pay twice. That’s the rub. I understand that,” he said.

“If you have one person leave a class, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to reduce the number of teachers. That’s the real issue in the whole thing. If we can figure out legislatively how to remedy that, to level the playing field, I think that’s where we need to go,” he added.

Everett, too, agreed that it’s important to provide accountability for cyber charter schools and he shares the frustration of administrators that nothing seems to be getting done in terms of funding.

He noted that the Legislature has been trying for three sessions to find a way to “level the playing field” so that public, cyber and brick-and-mortar charter schools would be “playing by the same rules.”

Again, he added that it is not an easy bill to get passed because of the diversity in districts throughout the state.

“I know it’s frustrating,” he said. “We have to find something we can agree on.”

Many districts have used fund balances to balance budgets this year, and many have raised taxes for the next school year. But what happens when the fund balance well runs dry and raising taxes is not enough to cover deficits?

Dr. Timothy Bowers, superintendent at the Williamsport Area School District, compared the districts taking money from fund balances to cover deficits to using personal savings to cover a home’s budget.

“Taking money out of your savings account to meet your budget, eventually your savings is going to be empty and the expense is going to still be there … And that catches up with you,” he said.

Dr. Jill Wenrich, Jersey Shore School District’s superintendent agreed.

“We can only do that so often before we are not fiscally solvent,” she said.

“We don’t disagree with school choice, actually,” said Dr. Timothy Bowers, superintendent at the Williamsport Area School District. “If you want to send your child to a private school, that’s your prerogative … We just think you should pay for it.”

Local administrators also cite instances where students struggle with the social aspects of public school so that cyber education would be a more sensible choice, but they argue that the best option is to place students in the cyber programs offered by the school districts.

“Our cyber program is more rigorous. We have all the same requirements. All our teachers are certified. All those things fall within our program. Then when you’re done with our program, you get our degree,” Bowers said.

“Our forefathers created public schools using public money so that everyone had a free and public option,” he added.

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