Time to fix school funding, address charters

GREATER JOHNSTOWN REGION SUPERINTENDENTS

TRIBDEM@TRIBDEM.COM

For years, public schools have been forced to make difficult financial decisions – cutting programs, increasing class sizes and raising taxes – just to balance their budgets.

Meanwhile, cyber charter schools continue to amass massive financial reserves at the direct expense of local taxpayers.

As a united group in this region, we stand alongside our colleagues across the commonwealth in demanding long-overdue cyber charter funding reforms that will match the tuition paid to cyber charters with the cost of online education and ensure additional accountability and transparency for cyber charters.

We have championed this cause for years, yet our calls have gone unanswered.

Meanwhile, this broken system continues to drain our public schools of critical resources, undermining the education of our students, straining our families and burdening our communities with higher property taxes.

System is broken – must be fixed

Pennsylvania’s cyber charter school funding model is fundamentally flawed.

State law mandates that school districts pay tuition for students to attend cyber charters that far exceeds what it costs these schools to provide students with an online education.

A recent report from Pennsylvania’s auditor general shows that cyber charter schools have so much excess funding that they were able to pack more than $600 million in tax dollars into reserve funds, provide $400-a-month fuel stipends to their teachers and staff who do not work from home, spend more than $70,000 for a Family Funfest at a Major League Baseball park, and much more.

All of this was funded primarily by tax dollars school districts paid them.

This is not a singular school issue – this impacts every school and every community across Pennsylvania. Public schools in our region alone are losing millions of dollars each year due to this broken system:

n Conemaugh Township Area School District: Approximately $570,000 annually.

n Conemaugh Valley School District: Approximately $905,000 annually.

n Greater Johnstown School District: Approximately $4.9 million annually.

n Ferndale Area School District: Approximately $1.2 million annually.

n Forest Hills School District: Approximately $480,000.

n Westmont Hilltop School District: Approximately $1,200,000.

n Richland School District: Approximately $444,000 annually.

n Windber Area School District: Approximately $535,000.

Meanwhile, cyber charter schools continue to receive more than $1 billion in local taxpayer funding annually, despite their consistent academic underperformance.

Locally, the cost of cyber charter tuition has soared to nearly $8.5 million, draining critical resources from our districts.

While some families may share positive experiences in the media to shift focus away from the system’s deep flaws, the reality remains: taxpayers are shouldering excessive, inflated costs with little oversight or accountability.

These unchecked expenses strip funding from our students and classrooms, forcing difficult financial decisions that impact the entire community.

Without meaningful reform, cyber charters will continue to operate at taxpayer expense without delivering the results our students deserve.

Hold cyber charters to same standards

Let us be clear: we are not arguing that cyber charter schools should not exist.

Pennsylvania law allows for their operation.

However, we demand a system that ensures:

n Accountability: Cyber charters must be held to the same financial, attendance and academic standards as traditional public schools.

n Transparency: Taxpayer dollars must be spent responsibly, with clear reporting requirements and oversight.

n Fair Funding: Tuition payments must reflect the actual costs of online education rather than a system that unfairly penalizes school districts.

The current model lacks these safeguards, allowing cyber charters to divert resources away from students while operating under far less scrutiny than public schools.

Proof is in the performance

Despite the staggering amount of funding they receive, cyber charter schools are consistently among the schools with the lowest student performance in the commonwealth.

Their graduation rates lag far behind those of Pennsylvania’s school districts, and their students consistently fail to meet statewide improvement targets.

Recently, an audit was conducted by the auditor general.

All five of the cyber charter schools referenced in Auditor General Timothy DeFoor’s recent performance audit are in comprehensive support and improvement.

Those five schools increased revenues by $425 million and reserves by 144%, but are unable to provide a comprehensive education in which students are meeting academic standards and graduation rates. Again, the system is broken and the taxpayers are footing the bill.

Public schools must justify every dollar they spend, yet cyber charters operate with little oversight, leaving communities across Pennsylvania to deal with the consequences.

Time for action is now

Our region must stand together and demand proper checks and balances for cyber charter schools.

This is not just a public school issue – it’s a taxpayer issue, a community issue and a Pennsylvania issue.

We call on families, taxpayers and community leaders to urge state lawmakers to:

n Pass House Bill 1422 to bring greater accountability and oversight to cyber charter operations.

n Support Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal for a flat tuition rate of $8,000 per student.

This would eliminate the wide disparities in what school districts are forced to pay and enact reforms that will ensure accountability and transparency for cyber charter school operations.

Until these reforms are made, cyber charter schools will continue to waste millions of taxpayer dollars while our local schools, our students, and our communities pay the price.

The time for change is now. We must act before another year of waste, inequity and financial hardship burdens our communities.

Nicole Dull, superintendent, Conemaugh Township Area School District; Shane Hazenstab, superintendent, Conemaugh Valley School District; Amy Arcurio, superintendent, Greater Johnstown School District; Jeffrey Boyer, superintendent, Ferndale Area School District; Thomas Mitchell, superintendent, Westmont Hilltop School District; Arnold Nadonley, superintendent, Richland School District; David Lehman, superintendent, Forest Hills School District; and Michael Vuckovich, superintendent, Windber Area School District.