Wolf hasn't lost the war

A Delaware County judge has blocked Gov. Wolf's attempt to apply some common sense to Pennsylvania charter school funding. One lost battle doesn't mean Wolf has lost the war, but if the dismal odds for success in the Republican-controlled legislature were better, he wouldn't have needed to take the case to court.

Wolf wanted to amend the Chester Upland School District's court-ordered financial recovery plan to reduce special-education reimbursements to charter schools from $40,315 per student, which is 50 percent more than the state average, to $16,152. But Judge Chad Kenney said the proposal lacked "meaningful" details justifying the funding reduction.

It's too bad the governor didn't present a stronger case, especially since even some charter proponents admitted that the special-ed reimbursements are too high. Among them was Donald W. Delson, president of the Chester Charter School for the Arts trustee board, though he said his school couldn't survive the cuts Wolf wanted to make.

The Chester Upland ruling makes it clear that if charter school funding and regulation are ever going to be changed to reflect today's realities, Wolf and the legislature must reach consensus not just on education spending, but on the entire state budget. There has been little significant movement since Wolf vetoed a Republican budget proposal in June.

Wolf seems unable to get Republican legislators to hear him above the din of various constituencies whispering in their ears, including interests tied to the shale-gas industry, which opposes Wolf's proposed gas extraction tax. To be fair, Democrat Wolf's ears seemed just as keenly attuned to the unions opposed to pension changes and state liquor system privatization.

The need to update Pennsylvania's 1997 charter school act became critical long before Wolf became governor, but legislative efforts have died on the vine. Meanwhile, Wolf's attempts to skip the morass known as the Pennsylvania General Assembly to bring about some reform have charter supporters calling him a "choice killer." But you don't have to be antichoice to want charters to be funded fairly and rules to be obeyed.

That's why it's good to see the state finally getting serious with charters that have been twisting rules to attract students. Philadelphia parents scrambling to find alternatives for their children shouldn't blame Wolf for insisting that Education Plus Academy operate as the cyber charter it is licensed to be, not as a brick-and-mortar school. Instead, blame the charter's operators, who gambled with children's educations by trying to play that trick.

It's time to end the games. Too much is at stake for students in both charter and traditional public schools.