Thursday, December 06, 2007
BY JAN MURPHY
Of The Patriot-News
Legislation changing the way cyberschools are funded has some parents concerned.
"I worry it's going to do irreparable damage to the system," said Tammie Kretchman of Rye Twp., Perry County, who came to the state Capitol on Wednesday to attend a House Education Committee meeting on the legislation.
Despite her concerns, shared by Republican and Democratic lawmakers, the 21/2-hour session ended with a 22-6 vote to approve the bill. The legislation would establish a uniform base tuition for the state's 11 cyberschools, which educate 16,000 students.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Karen Beyer, R-Lehigh, now goes to the House. She agreed to consider revisions before it reaches the House floor.
Beyer said her bill is not intended to kill the Web-based form of public education, but to bring "accountability" and "cost controls in cyberschools."
Her bill touches on several issues, but the new method of financing cyberschools was among the key concerns raised by committee members.
The cyberschools charge tuition to school districts in which their students reside. The amount varies, based on 80 percent of what it costs that district to educate its own students.
Beyer's proposal would establish a statewide tuition rate for regular education students and another for special education students, regardless of which cyberschool they attend.
The rates, which have yet to be determined, would be based on the lowest tuition rate charged last year by a successful cyberschool, defined as one that met its adequate yearly progress goals. The uniformity would disappear in subsequent years, when cyberschool rate increases would match the sending school district's increase in state aid.
Rep. John Pallone, D-Westmoreland, an opponent of charter schools, said that could create a windfall for wealthy school districts that pay a higher rate to cyberschools, while poorer districts might have to pay more.
Cyberschool proponents faulted the proposed funding method for failing to take into account that cyberschools are in different areas of the state and have different costs.
Tim Daniels, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools, opposed a provision in the bill that he called "insulting" to cyberschool teachers. It would leave it up to the state Department of Education's discretion as to whether a teacher's time in a "cyber" classroom would count toward a required teaching certificate.
Beyers said that is necessary to ensure "we have professional teachers teaching."
JAN MURPHY: 232-0668 or jmurphy@patriot-news.com
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