BASD Superintendent Dr. Joseph Roy and many school board members have long been on record at public meetings and during annual presentations railing against the additional costs, lack of supervision, and overall redundancy of charter schools as they are currently run.

Roy says charters are publicly funded but privately run, with different standards and no public accountability.

He says Pennsylvania school districts pay $1.5 billion each year to charter schools; $80 million of this is from the Bethlehem and Allentown districts. Of the $30 million Bethlehem is spending, Roy says, “If all 2,000 of the students [in our district] returned [to public schools] we would save at least $20 million. So the cost of school choice in Bethlehem is $20 million.

“Charter schools in Bethlehem are the cause of tax increases. Sometimes people don’t like it when I say that. But the fact of the matter is our district would not have needed a tax increase over the last few years if not for the $25 million – now $30 million – charter school expenditure.”