Citing rising costs to taxpayers and lack of ethical oversight, Governor Tom Wolf announced recently a three-part plan to address Pennsylvania’s flawed charter school law.

As part of his three-part plan to address Pennsylvania’s flawed charter school law, Wolf announced the Department of Education will institute new fees to fund the growing costs of administering the Charter School Law and recoup the rising costs to taxpayers.

The fee-for-service model is part of the governor’s commitment to improving charter school quality, accountability, transparency, and outcomes for students, while containing costs. The governor’s proposal includes executive action, overhauling regulations and legislation to reform the outdated charter school law.

Wolf said in a statement, “Despite costing taxpayers $1.8 billion last year, brick-and-mortar charter and cyber charter schools, and for-profit companies that manage many of them, are not held to the same ethical and transparency standards of traditional public schools.

“Pennsylvania’s charter school law is failing students, teachers, school districts and taxpayers. While there are high-quality charter schools, some of them, especially some cyber charter schools, are underperforming. The state and school districts need more tools to hold charters accountable and increase educational quality.

“My plan preserves school choice, holds charters to the same standards as traditional public schools, and strengthens education in classrooms across the commonwealth.”

Wolf’s executive action directs the Department of Education to develop regulations:

* Providing school districts with the tools to hold charter schools accountable to provide a quality education.

* Requiring more transparency with charter school admission and enrollment policies to prevent discrimination.

* Holding charter schools and the for-profit management companies to the same transparency standards as public schools.

* Establishing the same ethical standards for charter school Board sof Trustees and management companies that apply to public schools.

* Requiring regular financial audits and public contract bidding.

* Establishing requirements for charters to document costs to prevent school districts and taxpayers from being overcharged.

Wolf’s complete proposed rulemaking document can be found on the internet by searching for PA Bulletin, Doc. No. 19-1274.

Fee-For-Service

The fee-for-service model will recoup the costs of thousands of hours of staff time the Department of Education incurs from implementing the Charter School Law, Wolf’s release indicated.

For example, school districts make tuition payments to charter schools for each enrolled student. When a dispute between the district and charter school arises, charter schools can request that PDE “redirect” payment from the school district’s state funding to the charter schools. The department processed more than 13,500 requests of this type in 2018, a 60 percent increase in seven years. Charter schools are the only education provider, public or private, that receives this special service from the department.

Starting Sept. 15, the requesting school is now assessed $15 per redirection payment to recoup PDE’s cost of providing this service. Additionally, new cyber charter applicants will be charged a fee that reflects the cost to review the application. In the past this cost has been about $86,000 per applicant. This fee will be applied to new cyber charter school applications on or after Jan. 1, 2020.

Wolf is also proposing charter school law reform, receiving praise from districts statewide, including the Bethlehem Area School District.

Superintendent Dr. Joseph Roy, a longtime critic of current charter regulations, said, “The most important step the governor has taken is to publicly state the reality that charter school costs are causing increases in property taxes. That’s a fact charter operators try to avoid having out in public. Influential state legislators such as Senator Pat Browne and others are now calling for a special session to fix charter financing. Although that will take legislative action, which may be hard to come by, it is a step in the right direction.

“For more immediate actions, the governor is limited to executive actions he can take alone. Tightening some oversight rules, as well as charging charters for the time and cost PDE spends on tuition appeals charters regularly file are all steps in the right direction.

“Ultimately, however, the Governor will need to get the legislature to pass new charter financing bills to remove the unfair burden currently placed on districts and local taxpayers.”

School Board President Michael Faccinetto concurred. “I echo everything that Joe said. While the governor’s proposed changes are certainly in line with what I would support, the big question is can he get support in the general assembly.”

Roy said BASD’s numerous fees, expenses and reimbursements for local charter schools is now at $30 million a year.