This reader reports fro Pennsylvania, which has 16 cyber-charters, all drawing money from local school districts.
“We kind of know what happens. In PA, we have limited brick-and-mortar charters, but we’ve been dealing with cyber-charters for a few years now.
“It is a crushing formula for reimbursement– the state gives the charter the per-capita cost for each student. That generally translates into about 10K per student taken from the home district and redirected to the cyber school (the cost is greater for special needs students).
“In my mainly-rural district two years ago, the total cost of cyber-students to the district was about $800,000. And then the district closed two elementary schools with the stated intent of saving— about $800,000.
“How charters will affect school districts will depend a great deal on the funding formula imposed by the state. In Pennsylvania, cyber-schools are choking smaller school districts.”
Amazing when you consider that the completion rate of students enrolled in these “schools” is VERY low. In higher education, I believe the rate is about 4%.
This is exactly what Bill Gates envisions as the schools of the future.
OK so you take money from poor schools and give the money to other schools.
That means each school has fewer resources than it would have if it were part of a larger district.
So this is how less becomes more?
Jim Realini: you have succinctly pointed out that the mantra of “charters by their mere existence will make public schools better” actually means—
“less becomes more.” Less, that is, for public schools so that they cannot compete in any fashion with charters that are getting more and more of what public schools [in these increasingly financially strapped times] so desperately need.
But rest assured that charters will be happy with the $tudent $ucce$$ that comes their way. Even at the price of destroying—from the inside—public schools by squeezing off their funding.
Ain’t “education reform” grand?
😡
There is a bill being proposed in the PA legislature to take the approval of charter schools (brick & mortar) out of the hands of local school districts. Also, a bill to eliminate school property taxes and raise earned income tax, and raise and expand sales taxes. Talk about a regressive tax. PA does not tax pensions so our growing older and many well-off citizens won’t worry about the income tax.