Metro

Eighteen advocacy groups on Wednesday called on lawmakers to make cyber school tuition reforms a part of any deal negotiated to end the more than month-old budget impasse.

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget proposal, released in February, called for a statewide tuition rate of $8,000 per student enrolled in the state’s 14 cyber schools.

Cyber school tuition is currently linked to the per-pupil spending in each school district, meaning cyber schools receive varying tuition rates depending on where their students live.

The governor has estimated that the cap would allow school districts to keep $387 million going to cyber schools.

Hardly any school districts pay less than $8,000 per student in cyber school tuition. More than 130 school districts are now being billed more than double the proposed $8,000 per student tuition cap.

The Democrat-controlled House passed Shapiro’s plan in House Bill 1500 on June 4. The bill has not moved in the Republican-controlled Senate.

In addition to setting the tuition rate, House Bill 1500 also limits how much cyber schools can keep in the bank and bars the establishment of new cyber schools until 2029-30.

If cyber schools’ fund balances exceed the limits set in HB 1500, the excess would be returned to the local school districts. The legislation would also require cyber schools to notify parents if the schools’ state assessment scores are in the bottom 15% in reading or math.

“The current funding system for cyber charters requires school districts to pay cyber charter tuition bills that far exceed what the cyber schools are spending to educate their students,” the groups said in a letter to lawmakers. “These overpayments are tax dollars shifted from school districts that are forced to raise property taxes year in and year out — so that they can pay cyber charter tuition bills that exceed what these schools actually need to educate students at home on a computer. Suffice it to say, these overpayments place an undue and unnecessary burden on local taxpayers by causing property tax increases.”

The letter was signed by officials with the Education Law Center, the Education Voters of Pennsylvania, Children First and a variety of other progressive advocacy groups.

Last year’s state budget provided $100 million in additional reimbursements to local school districts to offset the costs of cyber school bills. In an opinion piece earlier this year, Senate Republican Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, said that, in addition, a change in the way special education funding is calculated will save school districts $190 million on their cyber school tuition.

“Review of cyber charter reserve accounts, more accuracy in calculating tuition costs and meaningful truancy reforms, are all areas worthy of discussion as we debate the 2025-26 budget,” Pittman said.

Meanwhile, groups representing cyber schools have blasted efforts to set a uniform tuition rate.

“Every House member who voted for this bill should look their cyber constituents in the eye and explain why their children aren’t as important as those who attend traditional public schools,” said Parents for School Options (PSO) Executive Director Kristen Tyagi after the House vote on HB 1500.

“Pennsylvania school districts are bursting at the seams with an all-time high $7.4 billion in rainy day funds. It makes no sense to slash funding for public cyber charter schools that only educate 60,000 children and account for about 3% of all public education funding.”