(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania schools were among the biggest winners in the fight for funding in the 135-day-late budget that passed Wednesday.
On top of a $565 million increase for basic education funding, the state anticipates a savings of $178 million for school districts thanks to cyber charter funding reforms.
For cyber charters, which have historically performed well under the standards of their brick-and-mortar counterparts while maintaining much higher cash reserves, the news is a big blow. They’ve withstood years of calls for reform from Democrats within the legislature, boosted by a damning analysis from Republican Auditor General Tim DeFoor earlier this year.
Cyber charters are part of the broader public school system, but unlike traditional schools, they benefit from advertising and have seen huge increases in enrollment since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Their business model falls somewhere between public education and private corporation, receiving tuition from each student’s school district based on that district’s cost per student. That number varies drastically from district to district, even as the education coming from the cyber charters remains uniform.
Wednesday’s updates to the school code will change all that while demanding increased transparency from the schools when it comes to their finances.
“In effect, we believe these cyber charter schools have been taking an amount of money that was not needed for them to operate their schools,” said Gov. Josh Shapiro. “That number was artificially high, we believe, and so in effect what we’ve done is we’ve returned in this case $175 million to start back to our public schools so the students who are going to those traditional brick-and-mortar public schools would be able to get their fair share of the funding and cyber schools would continue to operate effectively.”
Cyber charter school administrators, who typically don the title of CEO, don’t see it that way. A press release from a group of charters estimated that the real loss to their schools will be closer to $300 million. They claim that state revenue lost by charters runs against the state’s mandate for equitable education funding.
“Today, the lawmakers who voted in favor of the 2025-2026 State Budget sent a message to cyber charter school students and cyber charter school employees that they are worth less than their peers who attend or work at a traditional school district,” said Beth Jones, interim CEO at Insight Cyber Charter.
Some say they don’t expect the industry, its nearly 10,000 employees and 65,000 students, to be able to absorb the impact.
“We expect that, within the current school year, two of the 14 public cyber charter schools currently operating in Pennsylvania will be forced to close. Within two years, an additional five public cyber charter schools will most likely be forced to close due to insufficient funding,” said Jane Swan, CEO of Reach Cyber Charter School. “This is disgraceful and a direct attack on students who depend on public cyber charter schools as a lifeline. Public cyber charter schools, on average, educate a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students, students experiencing homelessness, and students with special education needs than school districts. These are the students who need more support but decision-makers in Harrisburg are failing these vulnerable children.”
Critical legislators have said it’s the cyber schools which are failing vulnerable children. At a February budget hearing, House Education Chair Rep. Peter Schweyer, D-Allentown, engaged in a scathing line of questioning about the schools’ poor performance.
“Central PA Digital Learning Foundation is the smallest public cyber charter school currently operating in the Commonwealth, but, despite our size, we often provide a viable and successful last option for our students who have lost hope that the public education system can work for them,” said Malynda Maurer, CEO at Central PA Digital Learning Foundation. “We focus on providing a safe place to heal, work toward credit recovery, and support our students (many of whom are working full-time jobs to provide for their families, young parents, or struggling with mental health issues) in their efforts to earn a high school diploma and successfully enter the workforce or go on to postsecondary education.”
For many, cyber charters come down to the question of school choice, one that’s been a top priority for Republicans in the General Assembly.
Dr. Rich Jensen, CEO at Agora Cyber Charter School called it “a colossal step backwards in Pennsylvania’s school choice movement.”
“Now more than ever, families who are currently exercising their right to school choice or students who have benefited from school choice in the past, must make their voices heard with the local lawmakers to prevent even greater attacks on public cyber charter schools.”
