Enough is enough
If you are concerned about whether Adams County children receive a quality education, you probably have read several recent news articles about the controversy surrounding public school attendance or enrollment in a publicly chartered cyber-charter school. Students who choose these schools are often enticed by ads promoting free computers for use in studying at home. But nothing is free. Who pays for this education? The taxpayer! Alex Hayes wrote an important editorial in the Gettysburg Times on this topic on March 30, and Pat Nevada laid it all out in the Times issue of April 8. Why so much focus on cyber schools?
I see it personally as a member of the Upper Adams School Board when we agonize every year how to balance the budget without having to raise property taxes again and again. Each year the state-mandated cost of paying exorbitant tuition to cyber-charter schools for students who live in our district but enroll in publicly chartered cyber-charter schools is one of the chief reasons for the onerous tax increases.
The Democracy for America Education Task Force has decided to join forces with public schools all over the county to focus the public’s attention on this issue and demand, “Enough is Enough!” We plan to submit articles to the Gettysburg Times every other month to answer your questions based on the following topics until we see real reform.
What is the legislative history and rationale that gives such a financial profit to those who operate the publicly chartered cyber-charter schools? Who decided that public schools have to pay tuition to these profit-making cyber schools of over $10,000 per student? Based on a state formula of what it costs to educate each student in the district’s public school, the actual cost Upper Adams paid to these cyber schools in 2018-19 was over $12,000 per student. Where is the justice when the actual cost to educate a student in the district-run cyber school by Odyseeyware was $1700 dollars that year?
What is the cost to every Adams County taxpayer? Both Alex Hayes and Pat Nevada document the millions of excess dollars paid to private cyber charter schools. Where does this money go and why should taxpayers foot the bill? If the same students who want to study at home enrolled in the public cyber school offered by their own school district it would cost the taxpayer half as much. How much would property taxes decrease if we ended this unfair funding practice?
What do we mean when we charge cyber-charter schools for a lack of accountability? Public school districts elect school boards to make sure the district schools are well run, are financially accountable, and provide students with a quality education. At Upper Adams our board hears reports about students who lag behind their peers because of their choice to attend a publicly chartered cyber-charter school for a year or more before deciding to return to our public school. Tests show that many of them are seriously behind their classmates and require extensive remedial attention. Who is monitoring these cyber schools?
How much taxpayer money is spent on lobbying the legislature just to maintain the status quo funding for the cyber-charter schools? If we know a school district can educate a student for less than half what we pay a publicly chartered cyber-charter school every year, what do these profitable cyber-charter schools do with $11,000 or more for every student? What about the cost of ads that claim kids can get a computer for free and not go to school?
What can the PA Legislature Do? Nothing is preventing rapid change in the way we fund our public schools and publicly chartered cyber-charter schools. Local state Representatives Dan Moul and Torren Ecker both support PA HB 526 which would dramatically change the way school districts and taxpayers pay for cyber-charter schools. The Senate Bill is PA SB 34. If both bills pass, students who do not want to personally pay for their education would have to attend their school district traditional public school, a brick and mortar charter school, or the district’s cyber school option, if one is available. If a student chooses to attend a non-district cyber school, the student would be personally responsible for paying the tuition for that education rather than have it subsidized by the taxpayer. The few districts that do not currently operate a cyber school would find it worthwhile to offer one.
What if the PA Legislature passes PA SB 34 and HB 526 to reform how we pay for cyber schools? Would the problem be solved? I’m certain some issues would remain, but we could at least proclaim, Enough is Enough!
Elaine Jones is a member of the Upper Adams School Board and of the Gettysburg Area Democracy for America Education Task Force.