Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School Funding Reform
What It Is, Why It Matters, & How You Can Help
What It Is
Cyber charter schools are tuition-free, online-only public schools that operate independently but are funded by local school districts. When a student living in the Spring Grove Area School District enrolls in a cyber charter, our district is required to pay that school a tuition fee—even though we have no oversight of their spending or academic performance. Most of these dollars come from property taxes that are raised at the local level.
The problem? Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools have been operating since 2002, but the way they’re funded is still based on a 1997 law designed for brick-and-mortar charter schools. This outdated system means that:
-
Cyber charters receive the same tuition payments as in-person charter schools, even though they don’t have the same expenses (like transportation, school buildings, and on-site student services).
-
Tuition rates vary widely because each school district calculates its own rate based on local expenses—not on the actual cost of educating a student in a cyber charter. This results in vastly different tuition payments for students receiving the same online education.
Because of this broken funding model, SGASD and other districts are overpaying millions to cyber charters that is being spent on things unrelated to educating students. This drains local education budgets and shifts critical resources away from our students.
It is important to note that this issue is not about limiting school choice. It's about pro-fiscal responsibility. The call for a reform is solely focused on ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly and that cyber charter schools are funded based on actual costs. Without reform, this outdated system will continue to place an unnecessary financial burden on taxpayers while failing to improve student outcomes. View the websites below to see how taxpayer dollars have been used by cyber charter schools.
- View Ed Voters’ report on how one cyber charter school uses our tax dollars.
- Cyber Charter Waste of the Week provides examples of how specific cyber charters waste tax dollars.
How You Can Help
Contact your legislators to tell them we need charter funding reform now.
Not Sure What to Say?
Use these templates. You can download the documents and make them your own.
SGASD Staff Member Letter/Email
Letter/Email for Any Constituent
The Case for Change: Audit Results, Recent Wins, and the Road Forward
PA Auditor General Cyber Charter Performance Audit
“I am now the third auditor general to look at this issue and the third to come to the same conclusion: the cyber charter funding formula needs to change to reflect what is actually being spent to educate students and set reasonable limits to the amount of money these schools can keep in reserve.”
Auditor General DeFoor
Recent Reforms: A Step Forward, But Not the Finish Line
In response to calls from public school districts across Pennsylvania, the 2024–25 state budget introduced several reforms to cyber charter school operations and funding. We sincerely thank our local legislators and the Governor for taking these important first steps. These efforts show a growing recognition that the current funding model places an unsustainable burden on public schools and taxpayers. However, they fall short of addressing the full scope of the issue.
Proposed Reforms: Turning Momentum Into Meaningful Change
We advocate for commonsense reforms to fix the broken charter school funding system:
-
End Overpayments to Cyber Charter Schools: Develop a more equitable funding formula that is in line with the actual cost of educating a child in a virtual environment. Governor Shapiro has suggested a statewide base tuition of $8,000 per student, saving taxpayers $278 million annually.
-
Apply the State’s Special Education Formula to Charter Schools: Ensure funding matches the actual cost of educating students with disabilities.
-
Increase Accountability & Transparency: Charter schools are exempt from any educational mandates that public school districts must follow. Require charter schools to meet the same financial and academic standards as traditional public schools.
-
Strengthen Local Control: Limit the power of the unelected Charter Appeals Board to overturn local school board decisions.
-
Prevent Discriminatory Enrollment & Discipline Practices: Ensure charter schools serve all students equitably.
Why It Matters
Taxpayer Dollars Are Wasted: Charter school tuition rates are not based on what it costs them to educate its students. It's based on school district expenses, leading to excessive payments. (Source: Education Voters of Pennsylvania)
Lack of Accountability: Unlike public schools, cyber charter schools operate with minimal oversight, spending tax dollars on non-educational expenses like advertising, lobbying, and excessive executive compensation.
Academic Performance Concerns: A study in 2019 by CREDO, the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University, showed that cyber charter students perform significantly worse than their peers in traditional schools, losing an average of 106 days in reading and 118 days in math annually.
Significant Budget Burden: The high cost of cyber charter tuition takes away key funds that could have a significant impact on our school community. For the 2025-2026 school year, SGASD estimates a $3,882,799.06 expenditure to cyber charter schools.
How Do Cyber Charter Schools Compare?
Note: The charts and graphs below are best viewed on a desktop. If using a mobile device, please turn it horizontally.
Understanding the impact of cyber charter school funding requires looking at more than just the cost—it’s also important to compare student outcomes. The charts below highlight key differences between Spring Grove Area School District and the three cyber charter schools that most of our students choose: Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA), Pennsylvania Cyber, and Reach Cyber.
We’ve provided a side-by-side comparison of PSSA and Keystone testing results, graduation rates, and tuition costs to give our community a clearer picture of how cyber charter schools perform academically compared to our district. These data points help illustrate how taxpayer dollars are being spent and the results they produce.
Expand the tabs below to explore how cyber charter schools measure up.
