Sep 16, 2025 By Karen Mansfield 4 min read

MetroCreative

Area administrators are urging state lawmakers to include meaningful cyber education reform in the budget, including a funding formula that reflects the actual costs of online education.

Superintendents and administrators from 215 Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools (PARSS) member districts, including several from Washington, Greene and Fayette counties, have signed a letter calling on state legislators to include “meaningful cyber charter school funding reform” in this year’s budget.

“ThiIs is a non-negotiable priority for the financial sustainability of our public school systems and the educational future of our 1.7 million students,” association members wrote in their letter to Pennsylvania state legislators.

The letter highlights the escalating financial burden placed on traditional public schools by the current charter school funding formula, which requires districts to transfer millions of dollars to cyber charter schools at rates far exceeding the actual cost of online education.

“This outdated funding system is bleeding our rural and small school districts dry,” said Ed Albert, Executive Director of PARSS. “Our member districts are being forced to make impossible choices between raising local property taxes on already-struggling communities or cutting essential educational programs for students. The current formula has no relation to the actual costs of cyber education, and after years of inaction, our superintendents are unified in saying reform cannot wait another budget cycle.”

The administrators said they are seeking several specific reforms, including a funding formula that reflects the actual costs of online education, implementation of a statewide tuition rate for cyber charter schools, greater financial transparency and accountability measures, and special education funding reform that aligns payments with actual services provided.

“Every dollar excessively diverted to cyber charter schools is a dollar taken away from the educational opportunities of the students remaining in our districts,” the letter states. “We stand unified in declaring that cyber charter reform cannot be deferred to another budget cycle.”

Pennsylvania school districts currently pay cyber charter schools based on their own per-pupil costs, regardless of the cyber charter’s actual expenses. The payment system has created wide disparities in funding, and places particular strain on rural and small districts with limited resources.

Among the signers was Bentworth School District Superintendent Scott Martin, who serves on the PARSS executive committee.

“We are looking for meaningful cyber reform,” said Martin, noting the disparity between what school districts pay for students to attend cyber schools. “Our cost is about $18,000 per student, and another school district could have a child go to the exact same cyber school and they’re paying $40,000 per student. There’s no consistency in the cost of sending a child to cyber school. Someone needs to take a serious look at this and say what does it cost to educate a child there.”

Martin noted the school district offers an in-house cyber school at a cost of $5,000, which includes breakfast and lunch five days a week.

“If legislators would do something with cyber charter funding and make it a reasonable amount, that would put money back into the district’s pocket,” said Martin.

Other area signers include administrators from Carmichaels, Central Greene, West Greene, Bentworth, Bethlehem-Center, Burgettstown, Charleroi, Chartiers-Houston, Peters Township, Ringgold, Trinity Area, Albert-Gallatin and Frazier school districts.

“It’s obviously costing the district a lot of funding,” said Albert Gallatin Superintendent Christopher Pegg, noting the school district loses in the neighborhood of $3 million annually to cyber charter schools. “Any type of reform they can do, if they have a set fee for our district students who choose to go to an outside charter school, that would have a great impact on us and other school districts like us. There is no end in sight, and that is something my school district and other school districts like us cannot control. We have our own version of cyber school called COLA (Colonial Online Academy), and we provide services at a fraction of the cost, but we can’t force people to attend.”

The letter states that “Every dollar excessively diverted to cyber charter schools is a dollar taken away from the educational opportunities of the students remaining in our districts. We stand unified in declaring that cyber charter reform cannot be deferred to another budget cycle.”