Cyber Charter Schools

The Pennsylvania Experience

     The Pennsylvania Legislature passed Act 22 in 1997.   This bill, which outlined the process for establishing and maintaining charter schools, defined a charter school as “an independent public school established and operated under a charter from the local board of school directors and in which students are enrolled or attend.”   The bill went on to state:  “Nothing in this clause shall preclude the use of computer and satellite linkages for delivering instruction to students.”   The door was officially opened for the development of cyber charter schools.

     SusQ-Cyber Charter School was the first to open in the state.   It served students located within one specific region served by the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit.   The Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (WPCCS) was the first virtual school to enroll students from across the state in 1998.   Their success was immediate as students from all over Pennsylvania enrolled.   Since then several other cyber charter schools have opened, each established with approval of a local school board.   Thousands of Pennsylvania students are currently enrolled in on-line public schools.

      Controversy arose when cyber charter schools invoiced students’ home districts for their services.   In many cases the home school district was unaware that some of their students had enrolled in a cyber school. This was especially true for home-schooled students who had previously cost the school district nothing.   Home districts displayed their opposition to paying cyber charter schools by building a case against them.   Their main complaints included:

• Act 22 was written for schools that are located in a specific physical location, not on the Internet.
• Charter school funding was not supposed to support home education programs.
• Many regulations are impossible to monitor, such as hours and days of student attendance.
• Home districts have no control over the education of their students enrolled in cyber schools.
• The payments to cyber charter schools are too high.  

      Five school boards joined together and refused to make payments to the cyber charter schools.   Without funding, many of the cyber schools were unable to fulfill their financial obligations.  Cyber school administrators appealed to the state Department of Education. Secretary of Education Zogby decided that the money due to the cyber schools would be taken from the basic education funding for those five districts.   In response, the districts and the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) filed a lawsuit in 2001 against the state that challenged the legality of cyber charter schools.   Meanwhile, legislators drafted numerous bills to tackle the “cyber school problem.”

     Two conflicting reports about cyber schools were released about the same time.   The PSBA report contended that cyber schools are illegal charter schools and recommended that new legislation by written to regulate them.   The state DOE report, written by KPMG Consulting, supported the efforts of cyber schools as viable alternative charter schools.

      Amendments in the Pennsylvania budget bill of 2002 (House Bill 4) ended the controversy by verifying the legal existence of cyber charter schools as independent public schools.   This bill also empowered the state:

•  to pay 30% of costs charged to cyber school students’ home

   schools

•  to withhold state funds from districts that refuse to pay cyber

   school invoices

•  to grant or deny all new charter-renewal applications.   (Existing

   cyber charters were grandfathered from the state approval

   process.)

•  to assess the finances and academics of cyber schools annually

•  to improve communication between home districts and cyber

   schools

      Although cyber charter schools have been recognized as legal education alternatives open to Pennsylvania students, there are still some hard feelings between home districts and cyber charters.   The education establishment, which continues to be reluctant to compete with other public school choices and feels threatened by innovation, resents their loss of control and funding.  However cyber charter schools are thriving in Pennsylvania today. 

REPORTS AND PA LAWS RELATED TO

CYBER CHARTER SCHOOLS

Act 22 – PA Charter School Law – 1997

House Bill 4 – with amendments certifying and regulating cyber charter schools – 2002

PA Department of Education report – “Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School Review” – October 2001

Pennsylvania School Boards Association “White Paper on Cyber Schools” – October 2001   (Select “Cyber Litigation Information” in column in right margin)