Area school superintendents want the state to fix what organizers called a “broken system of charter school funding” and to increase “oversight and accountability” of charter schools.

Attendees at a recent online conference included Superintendent Jennifer Holman of Northwestern Lehigh School District, Superintendent Joseph Roy of Bethlehem Area School District, Superintendent Christian Temchatin of Kutztown Area School District and Superintendent Mark J. Madson of Parkland School District.

The superintendents joined an internet-hosted conference May 20 to discuss what they called unfair or inequitable charter school funding.

The conference was hosted and moderated by Lawrence A. Feinberg, the director of Keystone Center for Charter Change. Fienberg is a past president of the Delaware County school board and is currently the vice president of the Delaware County Board.

Pennsylvania taxpayers spend $3 billion annually on cyber and on brick-and-mortar charter schools, according to materials posted to support the conference.

According to the superintendents, more equitable funding could allow schools districts better address pressing issues in their districts.

Parkland School District Superintendent Mark Madson gave a brief statistical picture of his school district, which he said has roughly 9,700 students.

“We have 398 students enrolled in charter schools and also cyber. We have 179 in cyber charter and 219 in brick-and-mortar charter schools. Almost 200 students are in our Parkland virtual academy.”

He said that in the 21-22 school year the district had $6.8 million in cyber and charter school costs. “During that period of time we lost between $3.8 million to $6.7 million.

“[With a] $260 million budget, for us, it’s a significant amount of funding that we are putting out to these charter schools. It’s a huge impact to us, especially, you know, for our taxpayers. So, certainly probably everyone will talk about [as] the number one concern is the calculation [or] the funding formula that the state is currently using. We believe it’s flawed.”

Madson also made a point of saying that oversight and accountability are lacking.

“We’re not able to really have that kind of collaborative relationship with these [charter] schools where all these students are going. So, for us in Parkland, it is not about looking at trying to provide choice but it’s really [about] how we provide better accountability and oversight that our taxpayers would expect. It is also to make sure that we’re able to work with schools so that we can benefit our students whether they decide to come back or not because they’re still Parkland students, Parkland residents, so we want to make sure that we’re able to support them any way that we can.”

Addressing the charter school tuition payments, Jennifer Holman, superintendent of NWLSD, said the issue, “not only impacts school district budgets but it also impacts every single taxpayer.

“[The] current funding mechanism, we believe, is broken. It forces school districts to overpay especially for cyber charter and special education students.’

Holman said, “I think every school district across Lehigh Valley would just ask you to know the facts when you’re checking for your children’s schooling. Check student performance before you make the selection for your child.

“We simply perform better on every measure than the average cyber charter school or charter school. Academically rigorous courses, graduation rate and industry standards. You get a high school diploma.

“You’ll have access to services that are offered by us, including counseling, vocational technical programming, library services and athletics. Just think about what it is that you want for your child.”

“We are expected to spend $2.1 million of our $50 million budget on 120 students attending charter schools. We are a district that has successfully returned many of our students post pandemic and we’re still projected to spend $2.1 million educating 120 [charter school] students.”

Holman continued a financial analysis of the effect of charter school students, but she summed up her point.

“I think every school district across the Lehigh Valley would just ask you to know the facts when you’re checking for your children’s schooling. Check student performance before you make the selection for your child. We simply perform better on every measure than the average cyber charter school or charter school academically, rigorous courses, graduation rate and industry standards.”

According to Keystone Center for Charter Change, which hosted the online forum, “Pennsylvania school districts are now estimated to spend more than $3 billion in taxpayer money on mandatory payments to brick-and-mortar and cyber charter schools.

The costs of charter schools for school districts continue to grow significantly each year, with charter tuition paid by school districts up 253 percent over the last 12 years, while charter enrollment only increased 118 percent. This was exacerbated during the pandemic, with over 22,000 students shifting to cyber charter schools at an additional statewide cost of over $335 million.

According to the organization, “On a statewide basis, charter school tuition payments are the most identified source of pressure on school district budgets. Now more than ever, there is a growing momentum from school officials across the state to call for charter school funding reform.”

When asked if the superintendents attending the conference think the charter school lobby is using misinformation or lies to support the current funding formula, Dr. Joseph Roy, Superintendent of BASD responded.

“I wouldn’t say ‘lies,’ but one of the things that I hear all the time [that is one of] their talking points is that all they have to get by on 25 percent less funding than school districts do per student.

“That’s completely misleading because when we send that check out the door for $15,000 or $16,000 [per charter school] student our costs don’t go down. Then you will hear the argument, ‘Well it’s just that the money follows the child.’

“Well,” said Roy,” the money follows a child with a big extra bag of cash behind them and so our costs don’t go down by the amount of the tuition [payment to the charter school]. So, anytime you hear the charter lobby talk about, ‘We get by on less money’ or, ‘the money just follows the student [so] it doesn’t hurt the districts,’ that’s misleading.”

Roy said another misleading argument put out by charter school advocates is that when ever public schools try to get the funding formula adjusted, it is because the public-school sector is trying to get rid of charter schools.

“That ship sailed a long time ago,” said Roy. He said no one is trying to get rid of charter schools and that they are here to stay.

“The motivation for the changes to the funding that we’re pushing for [is that] we’re stewards of taxpayer dollars, and we would like to see those taxpayer dollars used effectively and have some accountability.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a lie,” said Roy. “But when I have conversations with individual families who have transferred to a cyber charter or [brick and mortar] charter and they tell me that, ‘My daughter is doing well,’ I ask them to meet and review the data.

“So, it’s not a lie [from charter schools] about achievement necessarily. We know the achievement scores historically at the end [of a grading period] and I want to ensure that they [parents] are getting good information about the achievement of their child.

“We sit down and have those meetings. Through developed [assessment] processes from Kthrough 12 [we can] make sure that parents know exactly how their students are performing throughout the entire school year. And that’s the one conversation we always have because I’ll always rest on the fact that we can do a better job of preparing students to achieve. That’s only one measure of a whole child, but it’s a pretty important one.”

Roy also made the point that, “Tax increases are directly related to charter school payments.”

He also said public schools are currently paying for two separate systems when it comes to current special education. “Special ed funding doesn’t make sense.”