Bill would change funding formula for charter school, cyberschools
FILE PHOTO - School Lane Charter at 2400 Bristol Pike in Bensalem.
Posted: Friday, June 8, 2012 6:15 am | Updated: 6:50 am, Fri Jun 8, 2012.
Posted on June 8, 2012
Jack Myers, the Bensalem School District’s business manager, has been a critic of the funding formula for charter schools and cyberschools for years.
So when he heard about House Bill 2364, which reforms school district tuition payments for students attending those schools, he smiled.
And the more he learned about the legislation, introduced Monday by state Rep. Mike Fleck, R-81, he “smiled a little more.”
“It’s one hell of a step in the right direction,” he said.
Fleck, who is calling for more regulation of charter and cybercharter schools, said school districts are overpaying because the formula is based on what it spends on educating a student and not what it actually costs a charter or cybercharter school to do the same.
For example, if a district spends $10,000 to educate a pupil but it costs a charter school $8,000 to do the same, the district should only be required to pay the charter $8,000. Today, though, the district would pay $10,000.
It’s a complaint Myers has made. As chairman of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials Referendum and Property Tax Task Force, Myers has described the formula as “atrocious” and last summer testified before the House Education Committee on the issue.
Fleck’s measure would end the “double dip” charter schools receive for pension reimbursement. That money, half from the district and half from the state, is included in the student’s tuition calculation. The charter then gets its own check from the state, essentially a double payment.
It would eliminate noninstructional services from tuition payments, including athletic funds, nonpublic school programs and services, and the tuition payments themselves as they are unrelated to operational costs.
Charter schools’ unassigned fund balances would be capped at a level consistent with public school districts, about 8 percent of its budget.
A year-end audit would also take place.
The Pennsylvania State Education Association and Pennsylvania School Boards Association support the plan.
At his press conference Monday, Fleck dismissed the “propaganda and rhetoric out there of people saying we’re trying to close the schools. We’re not.”
He said cyberschools and charter schools are “here to stay. We just need to make sure they’re held to the same accountable standards.”
State Rep. Paul Clymer, R-145, chairman of the House Education Committee, called the bill “controversial” and said it would not get a hearing until the state budget is approved.
“We need to vet the bill,” he said. “It will be highly debated. We want to do what’s fair and not shortchange anyone.”
Last December, Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner called on the General Assembly to make changes in the funding formula. Wagner cited an audit report that found taxpayers spent $936 million on charter and cybercharter schools during the 2008-09 school year, which included $225 million in questionable reimbursements to school districts because the actual educational costs were unknown.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, there are 167 charter schools and cyberschools operating in the commonwealth with a total enrollment of more than 105,000 students.
Myers said Bensalem has more charter school students than any Bucks County district. He said it cost the district $5.9 million for about 530 students attending 14 different charter schools this year.
For comparison, Bristol Borough spends about $500,000 to cover the costs of 53 students in charter schools or cyberschools.
Myers’ calculations claim Bensalem is paying out more than $1,100 more per student than it should. That overpayment, he said, costs the average Bensalem homeowner $36 in taxes.
“That’s a lot of money when you’re talking about having to raise taxes,” he said.
1 comment:
This sounds like a decent piece of legislation.
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