Worried about school taxes? Follow the money!

Recently we have seen headlines about local school district budgets. Long letters to the editors often follow complaining that taxes should not be raised. Citizens attend board meetings and protest how the money is being spent while administrators and board members try to explain each increase.  

However, a huge sum of tax funds leaves Adams County each year in the form of cyber charter school tuition payments, and school districts have no control over this spending. In 2017-18 over $4 million dollars was sent from Adams County to 10 different cyber charter schools. Statewide, school districts paid approximately $463 million to cyber charter schools for tuition.

Cyber charter schools are an alternative to attending local schools. They operate over the Internet and allow students to work at their own pace at home. Pennsylvania’s school choice law, enacted in 1997, allows students to attend these schools instead of the schools in their local school district, and when they do, the school district must pay a tuition fee to the cyber charter school for each day the child is enrolled.

There are a number of inequities in Pennsylvania’s school choice law. First, the tuition rate for a given cyber charter school varies from school district to school district and is based on each district’s per-student cost of education. As a result, each of the six school districts in Adams County pays a different tuition rate. For the 2018-2019 school year, that rate ranged from $8,897 to $14,598 per year for each regular education student. 

How does this make sense? Why are school districts charged a tuition rate based on their own per-pupil cost rather than the actual cost to provide the child’s education through the cyber charter school?

The tuition inequity is further exacerbated when it comes to students with special needs. If a child attending a cyber charter school is identified as have any special need requiring an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), the school district must pay nearly double the regular education tuition rate for that child. Again, it doesn’t make sense that the actual cost of providing services for a child is not considered in this higher tuition rate.  

What is the actual cost per student?   Professionals estimate that it costs about $5,000 to educate a child through a cyber program. We know this because each district in Adams County has developed or contracted for its own cyber-learning alternative. Children who cannot attend regular classes can use the district’s cyber-learning option. These programs are closely aligned with the PA standards and the local school curriculum. The actual cost for a child to participate in their district’s cyber program is significantly less than what is sent to a statewide cyber school.

How are cyber charter schools using these funds? That’s a difficult question to answer. These schools are not held to the same transparency and accountability standards as your local school district.  

Let’s face it, cyber charter schools are big business. While they are called public schools they hire educational management companies, which use your tax dollars to run ads on television and radio and use billboards to entice new students. Last year $21 million dollars was spent on advertising these schools in PA. In addition large sums are used to lobby legislators to maintain the cyber charter school funding plan as it has been since 1997.  

Finally, it should be an expectation that wherever they go to school, students must meet the academic standards of the state, which means that they should pass the statewide PSSA exams with proficiency.  When too many students in a school district consistently score below the expected benchmarks, the district is required to follow a state plan of improvement and they are closely monitored.   

How do cyber charter school students perform on statewide assessments?  Studies have repeatedly shown that the majority of students attending cyber charter schools score below the proficiency level on statewide assessments.  Furthermore, the graduation rate averages 50.3%. That means that only half of the children attending cyber charter schools will graduate from high school.  And you the taxpayer are paying for it.   

So the hard-earned money of people from Adams County is sent to cyber schools all around the state but many of the students do not meet minimum academic standards. Much of the money our districts send to these schools is spent on advertising and lobbying efforts to maintain their programs rather than on educating their students. 

Two bills presently before the PA Legislature would change the way that cyber charter schools are funded.  Senate Bill 34 and House Bill 526 would require that a family choosing a cyber program for their student should use their own district’s cyber program or pay for the program themselves. This allows the flexibility of computer learning but would save districts across the state millions of dollars. With this legislation local tax dollars can stay in local districts to meet the needs of all students. Contact your representatives to encourage the passage of these bills.

Kathy Ciolino is the retired principal of Biglerville Elementary School and Dennis Cope is a retired administrator of the Upper Adams School District.  They are members of the Democracy for America Education Task Force.