The tug-of-war battle over students between public school districts and public cyber charter schools has intensified greatly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since March 13, Pennsylvania’s 14 public cyber charter schools have enrolled more than 14,000 new students who have left their assigned school districts. The mass exodus has public districts pushing even harder for a revamped funding system, while cyber charters are defending their turf.

During a Lehighton Area School District finance committee meeting Tuesday night, Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said between 150 and 180 LASD students are attending public cyber charter schools.

“Any other school is competition for our district,” Cleaver said. “But we see it as an unfair competition because of the way many charter schools promote their education and portray things. You’ll see commercials that call it a free education, but the home district is paying for it so that’s not necessarily the case.”

Lehighton operates its own in-house cyber program, the Lehighton Area Virtual Academy and, using its own teachers, can educate a regular education student for $1,000 each. That compares to the almost $13,000 it costs Lehighton when one of its regular education students chooses an outside cyber charter school. That cost rises to $30,000 per special education student.

“I’m not saying having a cyber option is bad, but I think our biggest bone of contention is, even when we weren’t using our own teachers, we could educate a student through LAVA for $4,500,” Cleaver said. “Why is it costing almost $13,000 for another cyber charter to do that?”

Public cyber charter schools are well aware of the views of public school districts. In a recent email to state lawmakers, Jessica Hickernell, director of public affairs and policy for the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, said, “We encourage you to push back on your local school district leaders who continue to lob attacks at Pennsylvania’s public charter schools and vilify them in the media and in your communities.”

“We know you and your colleagues often hear from school boards and superintendents, and their special interest groups that Pennsylvania’s public charter schools are to blame for their financial woes, and you will undoubted continue to hear this as the popularity of charter schools grows during the pandemic,” Hickernell wrote to legislators. “However, these statements are misleading and inaccurate.”

Lehighton doesn’t give up its students without trying to keep them local. When a student announces their intention to enroll in an outside cyber charter school, the administration often reaches out to the family to see what it can do to keep them around.

“We explain to them the options they have with our own virtual academy and we’ve gotten some to stay,” Cleaver said.

On the suggestion of a finance committee meeting attendee on Tuesday, Cleaver said the district will also consider sending a survey to families, asking what it would take to keep students local.

Catching up on tuition

One of the ways Lehighton is looking to fund its bus transportation contract this year is by recouping overdue tuition payments from other districts.

Not every program is offered in every district, Cleaver said, using emotional support as an example. When a student from another district attends Lehighton to receive that program, the home district is charged tuition.

Just within the last year, a total of $1,102,147.74 was billed to other school districts for school years 2017-18 and prior.

Cleaver said the district is waiting on $58,945 from Weatherly and $277,262 from Panther Valley, and is working on a payment plan for the $573,401 owed by Palmerton.

“It’s a large amount of outstanding money and we are planning to use some of that to help offset transportation costs,” Cleaver said.

No changes to bus contract

In late August, Lehighton’s board passed a motion allowing for up to $800,000 to be spent on student busing with George’s Transportation Company. This came after non-mandated transportation was not included in the district’s 2020-21 budget.

The transportation plan did not call for busing students who live in Lehighton Borough. Cleaver said at the time that those students are within the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s approved walking boundaries.

With colder months approaching, director David Bradley and district resident Barbara Bowes called Tuesday for Lehighton to look into getting a number from George’s on what it would take to get the borough students bused to school, even if just for the winter months.

“We need to get a number so we can see what we need to do to hit that target,” Bradley said.

Cleaver said the first bill from George’s this year was just under $84,000 as opposed to $148,508 last year. The district had 17 bus runs this year instead of 20.

“You can see it’s a big difference,” Cleaver said. “Mr. George has been working with us, communicating almost daily as we do everything we can to try and improve. They’re doing a fantastic job.”

As of now, finance committee chairman Nathan Foeller said, there are no changes to the bus contract, but he asked to Cleaver to contact George to try and get the information requested.

Bowes said she understands the district’s financial plight, but hopes something can be worked out for the students in town.

“It would be nice, at least over the winter months, to provide transportation for our town students if we can find the money,” she said.