Centre County area districts join statewide call for accountability, fairness in charter school reform
Centre County area school districts have joined statewide calls for change to Pennsylvania’s charter school law. Critics, however, believe the proposed reform could lead to fewer choices, and that attacking charter programs is not the best way to move forward.
All school boards in Centre, Clearfield and Clinton counties — 11 in total — recently passed a joint resolution highlighting support for needed improvements to the law, including the funding formula used to calculate charter school tuition payments and added accountability to taxpayers and school district oversight on how public funds are spent.
Joined by local educators and state representatives last week, Gov. Tom Wolf unveiled legislation that would address concerns by controlling rising costs and ensuring students are treated fairly. The new plan could save districts $229 million a year by better aligning charter school funding with actual operating costs.
The proposal would create performance standards to hold low-performing charter schools accountable while rewarding high-performing programs with flexibility. It would also limit cyber school enrollment until educational quality improves and require charter schools to have policies that prevent nepotism and conflicts of interest, as well as ensure leaders abide by State Ethics Commission requirements.
“Every child in Pennsylvania deserves a high-quality education that prepares them to succeed in life, but our current law lets some charter schools perform poorly at the expense of students enrolled in traditional district schools,” Wolf said during a press conference. “The pandemic has made the problem worse as charter school enrollment has increased.”
Despite local and statewide support from area school districts, Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, said the proposal is “not based on what the parents and students in Pennsylvania want and need.” Describing Wolf as “tone-deaf and out-of-touch” in a statement, Corman suggested the governor work with legislators to create reform without slashing funds.
“Proposing to cut funding for students just because they exercised school choice is discriminatory and targeting students with special education needs — who under Wolf’s proposal would see $99 million taken from them — is unconscionable,” Corman said. “The governor’s charter school plan forces kids, many minorities and economically disadvantaged, back in failing public schools. It’s time we end the education lottery, where your future is determined by your ZIP code.”
Corman noted that school districts received more than $4.5 billion in unreserved funds balances and $2.27 billion in federal relief funds in the past 10 months.
Wolf said the proposal accommodates the needs of area districts and charter programs through fairness and accountability.
Under the present law, charter schools do not charge students tuition; instead, the majority of funding comes from their students’ residing districts. Funds received by charters are based on a formula that requires tuition rates for nonspecial and special education students.
This system has drained funds from traditional public schools by forcing districts to cut education programs and increase property taxes, Wolf said.
“The funding formula is based on what school districts spend for required programs and services, some of which charter schools don’t provide,” State College Area School District Superintendent Bob O’Donnell said. “For example, not one charter school in our region has a career and technology center for their students, but they are funded as if they do.”
O’Donnell added that cyber charter schools do not require the same kind of funds to manage facilities and grounds as traditional schools, but tuition rates include those expenses. The current formula also provides a flat rate for all students with special needs that does not reflect the actual cost. In many cases, O’Donnell said the difference between funding and provided services could be thousands of dollars per student.
SCASD pays an almost $6 million charter bill with no input on spending, O’Donnell said.
Bellefonte Area School District board member Donna Smith said the cost to educate one student in the district’s cyber program is about a quarter of what they are required to pay for a cyber charter education.
“Another way to put it is that we are being charged four times what we know it costs to educate a student in cyber school, and we are outperforming those schools in every facet,” she said. “Who pays the price? Our kids do. They pay the price when we have to cut programs, which we have.”
Smith said the push for reform is not meant to take away choices from families, but it’s necessary for school districts to be able to invest in their own facilities and services.
“We’re all about giving our kids the best education we can without dragging our taxpayers over the coals, and when we see millions of dollars walking out the door, to say it’s frustrating is an understatement,” Smith said, adding that Bellefonte could invest in social workers, classroom aides and the elementary building project with those funds. “Again, it’s not about school choice. We believe in it. We believe in good charters and cyber charters, but we just want there to be accountability and fairness.”
In 2018, Wonderland Charter School, formerly located in Ferguson Township, closed its doors. Charter school officials said the decision was due to “numerous costly and time-consuming requests, as well as intrusive, harassing, and redundant inspections” from SCASD, but O’Donnell said Wonderland failed to provide required special education services and was following spending practices “rife with conflicts of interest.”
Without change, O’Donnell said this “unfortunate history” could easily be repeated.
Though supportive of reform, Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania Charter School CEO and Principal Levent Kaya said efforts to reform “should not be made as an attack on charter schools” in order to save money for districts and should instead seek feedback from both parties.
“Charter school students are entitled to the same funding that the public school students are receiving as the public is paying taxes for all students’ education,” he said.
Funding assigned to charter school students is provided to their schools of choice, Kaya said. He added that charter programs must follow the Sunshine Law and State Ethics Commission’s rules and regulations, participate in charter renewals every five years, maintain annual financial audits and undergo the same auditing processes districts do.
Historically, charter schools educate a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged and underperforming students compared to area districts, Kaya said — adding that charter schools helped provide educational opportunities students might have lacked.
“Attacking charter schools negatively impacts students whose chances of getting a good education may be limited,” Kaya said. “We are supportive of increased accountability for all school entities.”
