House Republicans recently unveiled a legislative package aimed at reforming charter and cyber charter school funding in Pennsylvania, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129)
The package includes bills that would:
• Create a commission to address inequities in the special education funding formula and determine how to fund charter and cyber charter special education students.
• Allow deductions for school district pension payments prior to calculating payments to cyber charter schools. This proposal could save $165 million for school districts over the next five years.
• Change the cyber charter funding formula for non-special education students by permitting school districts to deduct 50 percent of the costs of any cyber program they offer to their own resident students. It also would make additional deductions in calculating their payments to cyber charter schools based on costs that occur in a brick-and-mortar setting, such as extracurricular activities and district pupil services.
• Permit the Commonwealth to directly pay charter and cyber charter schools, as opposed to school districts. This is intended to address concerns made by charter and cyber charter schools about the timeliness of their payments.
• Lengthen the charter terms for predictable financing. The current three years initial term of a charter and five years for a renewal will be lengthened to five years for an initial term and 10 years for renewals. This will allow charter schools to more easily secure predictable financing for their operations.