State Cyber School Reform Bill Pushed

By Brad Bumsted

HARRISBURG — A Lehigh County lawmaker on Tuesday vowed to push legislation that she said would provide accountability for cyber charter schools and save taxpayers millions of dollars.

Republican Rep. Karen Beyer’s bill would set a lower rate for school districts to reimburse cyber charter schools. The savings for Pittsburgh Public Schools would be $2.3 million a year, she said.

“I will leave no stone unturned in an effort to bring enactment of this legislation,” Beyer said at a news conference. The bill, approved by the House Education Committee in December, has been “held up” since then in the Appropriations Committee, Beyer said. The bill has bipartisan support.

She said she’ll push for the bill to be released from committee. If that doesn’t work, “I intend to amend this .. . to every education bill” considered before the June 30 recess, Beyer said. “I have no doubt this bill will be successful on the House floor.”

An analysis of the legislation by the House Education Committee said it would limit fund balances of charter schools and allow the state Department of Education to issue regulations to ensure that students of cyber charter schools “are receiving appropriate hours of education” and enforce truancy for students.

“We just simply haven’t had a chance to look at it yet,” said Johnna Pro, spokeswoman for House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia.

Charter schools are self-managed public schools approved by local school districts and the state Department of Education. About 64,000 students attend charter schools, with some 23,000 of those attending cyber charter schools, according to Tim Daniels, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools.

Claiming charter schools are as accountable as traditional public schools, Daniels said, “there is no consensus, no groundswell, among the people who vote, to have this passed.”

Beyer’s bill is “really limiting the choice of Pennsylvania families and students,” Daniels said.

But Beyer said cyber charter schools sit on large surpluses and are overcompensated by school districts “based on what they actually report and spend.”

Her legislation would reduce the amount allotted per pupil in cyber charter schools from $10,800 to $7,020 in the city of Pittsburgh, according to figures from the Department of Education.

The savings would be $18.5 million statewide, and $4.5 million for schools in Allegheny County, Beyer said.

“We applaud Rep. Beyer’s hard work. We all want to save taxpayers’ money, and this bill will certainly do that,” South Park Superintendent Richard Bucchianeri said at the news conference.

“The bottom line is, why should public school districts have to pay more than what the cost of an education program is?” Donald Wukich, assistant director of finance for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, said after the news conference.

But Andrew Oberg, assistant director of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School in Midland, Beaver County, said, “This bill will take away valuable resources from children who find that public cyber charter schools are the best educational option for them.”

(c) 2008 Tribune-Review/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.