Pennsylvania cyber- and charter schools, authorized by the state Legislature more than a decade ago, are booming. The schools are tuition-free; the money to operate the schools comes from each student’s “home” district, which is required by state law to remit its average annual cost per student. In Elanco, for example, it costs an estimated $9,311 to educate every nonspecial education student (and $15,356 per special education student). If 11 students leave, or never attend Elanco schools, the district has to shell out more than $100,000 to the cyber- or charter school of the student’s choice.

School districts are reimbursed some of this funding by the state, though that reimbursement rate has fallen. And as districts here and across the state face fiscal crises, there are growing concerns that the Legislature needs to do something to stem the districts’ rising cyber- and charter school costs.

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