Funding for cyber charters up for debate

The debate over funding Pennsylvania's 11 cyber charter schools is expected to flare during a state Senate Education Committee hearing today in York.

Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak will renew his call for overhauling the cyber charter school law to set a statewide tuition rate and prevent charter operators from accumulating huge surpluses. A cyber charter operator and charter groups that have fought such changes in the past are expected to lambaste the secretary's proposal.

Cyber schools, which provide online instruction to more than 20,000 students at home, are just one of the issues that will be tackled as the committee takes stock of the 1997 charter school law and legislation adopted in 2002 covering cyber charters.

The 12:15 p.m. hearing in York's Lincoln Charter School also will cover accountability and academic achievement of charters.

"We are trying to get out the message that in my view, on balance, charters are a positive thing," said Sen. Jeffrey E. Piccola (R., Dauphin), committee chair. "But it's been 11 years. We want to give everyone the opportunity to make suggestions for changes and revisions."

A co-sponsor of the 1997 law, Piccola said in December he would consider reviewing the law after The Inquirer ran a series of articles on fiscal abuses of some Philadelphia-area charters.

Approximately 67,000 students are enrolled in the state's 127 charter schools.

In addition to the education secretary, others scheduled to testify include Jeanne Allen, founder and president of the Center for Education Reform, a pro-charter organization in Washington; Lawrence F. Jones Jr., head of the Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School in Philadelphia and president of the state Coalition of Charter Schools; Tim Allwein, assistant executive director of the state School Boards Association; and Joanne Jones Barnett, CEO of the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School in Norristown.

State Sen Andrew E. Dinniman (D., West Chester) said that among the questions he planned to ask charter operators was how they intended to guard against further financial scandals.

"If there are a few bad apples in the group . . . how are you going to self-police?" he said he would ask. "What are you going to do to establish a clear code of ethics?"

As The Inquirer has reported, at least three Philadelphia charter schools and a cyber charter in Devon have been ensnared in a widening federal criminal probe.

The federal investigation began in the spring after The Inquirer reported that the Philadelphia School District inspector general was investigating allegations of nepotism, conflicts of interest, and financial mismanagement at Philadelphia Academy Charter School in the Northeast.

Several state officials including state Auditor General Jack Wagner and Zahorchak have said the law needs to be amended to provide more charter oversight and to close loopholes, especially those covering special-education payments to charters and funding cyber charters.

At today's hearing, Zahorchak is scheduled to testify that the administration of Gov. Rendell again will push for a statewide tuition rate for cyber charters and for capping the amount of their unreserved balances, an Education Department spokesman said.

The legislature did not act on similar proposals last year.

Districts pay cyber schools the same per-student tuition as they pay charter schools. The amounts vary widely.

In the last school year, the amounts ranged from $5,380 in the Reading School District to $15,076 in Jenkintown even though their students receive the same instruction from the cyber school.

The rates were higher for special-education students: Reading paid $11,848; Jenkintown $29,986.

The cybers reported spending between $6,835 and $11,600 per student during 2007-08. The state found cybers' surpluses totaled $28 million at the end of 2005-06.

Zahorchak also will propose changing what charters receive for special-education students. The amount would be 20 percent less if the student has a speech or language impairment.

Charters now receive the same amount for special education whether the student needs extensive help or less expensive speech and language services.

The education secretary also will call for charter schools to return money to districts at the end of the academic year if they spend less on special education than they receive.

Piccola said he scheduled the hearing at Lincoln Charter School in his district because it was the first public school in the state converted into a charter.

He said the Senate committee might schedule a similar hearing later in the spring in the Greater Philadelphia area, which is home to 65 percent of the state's charters, "to consider issues that might be specific to the Philadelphia experiment."