pcrossley@sungazette.com
Revealed in Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget agenda this week was a proposal to establish a statewide cyber charter school tuition rate aimed at reducing the costs to districts for students attending those schools, which has local superintendents saying it’s a start, and state cyber charter schools calling it “callously wrong.”
Under Wolf’s proposal, cyber charter school tuition would be established at $9,500.
Currently, cyber charter schools in the state charge between $9,170 and $22,300 per student each year. The average tuition rate Intermediate Units in the state charge districts for a comparable online education is about $5,400 per student annually. This change in how cyber charter schools are funded is estimated to save school districts an estimated $130 million annually.