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Cyber Charter SchoolsGood for some local districts; bad for the State Budget
Funding
for school districts. Now that is a
topic that garners attention and comment from many interested parties.
Everyone from the General Assembly and the Ohio Supreme Court, to local
school district superintendents, teachers, parents, and others.
Having the money and resources to provide an effective education is a
real juggling act for many districts. Cyber
Charter schools (actually called “community schools” in Ohio) are getting a
lot of attention throughout the country. With
approximately 50,000 children nationwide taking advantage of this educational
option, many local school districts are seeing these “schools” in a new
light. In Ohio, the cyber schools
offer districts the opportunity to receive state funds from students who are
currently not enrolled. Extra money
for the district sounds great, right? Not
necessarily. The
Wall Street Journal, in their April 5th, 2002 edition, published an
article titled “Controversy Flares Over Public Funding of Cyber Schools.”
This article goes on to address the issue of state/district school funds
being used for cyber schools. Each
state has it’s own charter school law. In
some, the funds come directly from the state.
In others, it comes from the local district where the student resides. Many local school districts have filed lawsuits and are
refusing to pay the cyber school (for a variety of reasons). Even here in Ohio, a group of related parties have filed a
lawsuit against the cyber charter schools.
Some
cyber charter schools are marketing themselves to revenue-starved districts as a
way to attract students and the public money that pays for them.
They pitch themselves as a tool for school districts to stretch resources
and maybe even make money. In the
Eagle-Gazette article, one superintendent said that a cyber charter school would
let public school districts collect state money they would get if home-schooled
children attended public school. Lest there be any doubt, the primary market
these schools go after are the current home school students.
Do you know that every student that chooses to home school saves the
state over $5,000? Where is the
General Assembly going to find the funds to pay for all these “new”
students? Between the school
funding lawsuit (DeRolph) and the loss of revenue in the current State Budget,
the legislators are already scrambling to make ends meet. A
recent White Paper on Cyber Schools in Pennsylvania found that more than 50% of
all students (enrolling in a cyber school) are being educated at public expense
for the first time. If this is
indicative of Ohio, think of the financial impact of that statement!
One cyber charter school here in Ohio has projected a student enrollment
of 5,000 by the end of their 5th year.
If 50% of those students were previously home schooled that is 12.5
million dollars that the General Assembly is going to have to find that they
never had to budget in earlier years. That
is just with one of these schools! At
what point will the General Assembly stop and count the cost? Bruce
Purdy |
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