A Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials report released earlier this week projects Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts will see a $475 million increase in cyber-charter school tuition costs this year as more students move away from the traditional education setting.

A survey of district superintendents and business managers, which PASBO conducted along with the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators and the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools, listed cyber-charter costs as one of the top financial concerns for next year, followed by assessment appeals and state funding.

“Overall, charter school tuition costs increased by $1.4 billion between 2013-14 and 2018-19 - an average of more than $250 million per year, and while increases in charter school enrollment have not been the driving factor behind charter school cost increases in the past several years, this year is different,” the trio of organizations said in the report. “In addition to the routine” increase in the cyber-charter tuition rate, estimated to be between $125-150 million this year, which results from the statutory tuition calculation that is based on school district budgets, the increase in cyber-charter enrollment could mean that school districts must pay an additional $350 million more in cyber-charter tuition in 2020-21, an estimated total increase of about $475 million compared to 2019-20.”

The exodus

Though many have their own in-house cyber offering, local districts, since the start of the pandemic, have voiced concern about what an exodus to outside cyber-charter schools would do to their finances.

“I was trying to get my head around the amount of astronomical money that we as a district are spending on our 16 different cyber-charter schools,” said Donna Yozwiak, Pleasant Valley School District board president said recently.

Pleasant Valley has 767 students in outside cyber-charter schools.

“I was shocked beyond belief to determine that in the month of December, one out of the 16 cyber-charter schools received $2.5 million from us. That was for one month,” Yozwiak said.

Superintendent Lee Lesisko explained that the school district pays $16,000 to charter schools to educate one student. The cost to educate a child in a special education program increases to about $36,000. With 767 students in cyber-charter schools, the district will pay out a minimum of $12.3 million. It will be higher if any of the students are in special education programs.

Financials

Panther Valley’s cyber-charter expenses are expected to top $3.5 million this year, however the district budget only anticipated about $2 million.

When a student living in the district chooses a cyber-charter, their tuition cost is automatically subtracted from the district’s state funding. The cost for Panther Valley is $8,505 per student, and $32,306 if the student needs special education.

Lehighton operates its own in-house cyber program, the Lehighton Area Virtual Academy and, district officials said, can educate students for much less than outside schools by using its own teachers.

“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,” Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said during a meeting in October. “Why is it costing almost $13,000 for another cyber-charter to do that?”

Also of note in the PASBO report released Wednesday, staffing shortages and challenges were noted by almost 90% of respondents, as teachers were needed for new online programs, social distancing required smaller class sizes and ongoing health concerns and quarantine procedures spread existing staff thin.

Almost unanimously, respondents noted that despite the personnel challenges, their staff was working well together through the chaos.

“Adding to the complexity of the staff COVID transition,” the report stated, “were the health concerns of school employees, which resulted in some staff being deployed in solely remote teaching roles that created holes in in-person classrooms. On top of that challenge, there were daily absences of instructional staff that complied with state guidelines for quarantining when contracting or being exposed to COVID.”

Staffing challenges

Lehighton has its elementary and middle school students learning in-person five days per week, so when a staff member has to quarantine, it requires a personnel shuffle that has proved challenging.

“I think the staffing challenges is one of the most difficult parts of this,” Cleaver said. “When you have a staff member quarantining for 10 days, sometimes 20 days, they can teach from home, but because we have students in the building, we need someone there in the classroom. We’ve had to move things around, when space allows we can combine classes, but all of our staff has really come together to make it work. And the kids, above all, have showed their resiliency. They really adapt more easily than the adults.”

On top of these challenges, nearly 85% of respondents indicated that finding substitutes was difficult, if not nearly impossible.

“Finding substitutes was challenging before COVID,” Cleaver said. “All of us in the area are pulling from the same pool. And it’s clear that the amount of graduates with teaching degrees is on the decline, so there is just not an abundance of candidates out there.”

CARES funding

The CARES Act passed last summer provided Pennsylvania schools with about $575 million, funding which schools have to spend by Sept. 30, 2022. A second round of funding will provide more than twice as much to local schools including $1.75 million to Jim Thorpe, $2.49 million to Lehighton, $1.18 million to Palmerton, $2.42 million to Panther Valley, $538,207 to Weatherly, $2.99 million to Pleasant Valley, $1.46 million to Northern Lehigh and $1.9 million to Tamaqua.

While the funding amounts have been announced, Cleaver warned that it could be several months until the money is released to districts.

“There is a lot of tape to get through before we see that,” he said. “You see a lot of districts planning to use the money for HVAC and building upgrades, but here in Lehighton, we’re pretty up to date on that. We haven’t had a lot of discussion yet, but we could look to earmark some of that toward additional costs in our cyber program.”

While the federal funds are welcome, the report warns of the consequences when federal funding dries up in 2023.

“The mistakes and consequences of the previous withdrawal of federal aid to school district during the Great Recession must not be repeated,” the PASBO report states. “Without additional future state support to begin to cover the increase in school district mandated costs that have been percolating underneath all of the COVID-related expenditure increases, school districts - and taxpayers - are worse off.”