Mid-state school superintendents push for charter school funding reform
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP, PA – Keystone Central School District Superintendent Jacquelyn Martin was among three mid-state public school administrators who on Friday renewed their efforts to garner support for pending charter school reform legislation. She was joined by State College School District Superintendent Dr. Bob O’Donnell and Moshannon Valley Superintendent Dr. John Zesiger.
A Zoom session was held for area media to address what the school participants described as a flawed system of charter school funding which, they said, hurts school districts and ultimately taxpayers.
Superintendent Martin told the media assemblage that Keystone Central operates on an $82 million annual budget and 11% of that amount includes charter tuition payments for some 500 students out of an enrollment of 3,700. She said the formula for payments to charter schools must be updated. For Keystone Central, she said, that would be a savings of $1.2 million annually.
Martin said for 21 years Keystone Central has been “funneling local tax dollars out the door and down the turnpike to public cyber charters in Beaver, Butler, Dauphin, Chester and Montgomery counties.” She said cyber charter schools have received millions of local dollars to educate students remotely, “but spending much less than any brick and mortar school and ultimately producing subpar academic results.” She said “not a single cyber charter or brick and mortar charter school that receives the district’s charter tuition has better academic results” than Keystone Central. She called the situation “disheartening and unfair to say the least.”
Martin and her fellow administrators called for support of pending legislation to alter the charter school funding formula. It was noted that legislation has co-sponsorship from 15 GOP legislators, making the measure bi-partisan. Asked about support from mid-state legislators, the Keystone Superintendent said she has met with 76th District Rep. Stephanie Borowicz and state Senate President Pro Tem Jake Corman but did not indicate any support from them. Moshannon Valley Superintendet Zesiger said he believes area representatives “understand” the issue but are “not necessarily onboard.” State College’s O’Donnell called the matter a party line issue and said the public school officials “hope to educate community members.”
Participants included Larry Feinberg, director of the Keystone Center for Charter Change. He said public school board members from 409 of the state’s 500 school districts have offered support for a revision to the two-decade old charter law. All eleven districts within Clinton, Centre and Clearfield counties have approved a resolution for change.
