DV Journal

Pennsylvania Democrats are trying to cut funding for special needs students in Pennsylvania public schools. Now, brace yourself—the more you learn, the worse it gets.

While state spending on public schools has soared to $22,000 per student, Gov. Josh Shapiro wants to cut funding to $8,000 for cyber charter students. Many of these students learn from home because they require a level of flexibility and care that a brick-and-mortar school cannot provide.

For example, take Stacy Phillips, who enrolled her children in cyber charter schools. She strongly supports the public school system and even taught special education in the Philadelphia School District for a decade.

But when her daughter entered Central High School and struggled with worsening depression, fear of self-harm, and physical illness, Stacy—as a specialist and a mother—knew her daughter needed a change.

Stacy and her husband transferred her from one public school to another: Agora, a cyber charter that allows students to take classes from home. The new school changed her daughter’s life. Once she felt safe enough to learn, she excelled in the rigorous curriculum, found a healthy social balance, and now attends the community college.

Agora also became a lifesaver for Stacy’s son, who enrolled in sixth grade after the bullying was too much to bear in private school. His speech and behavioral issues escalated, and his school forced second-grade-level coursework on him despite his 10th-grade reading skills.

Attending Agora, his challenges no longer stall his progress.

“All his Agora teachers presume competence and implement everything he needs to believe he can do it and be successful,” Stacy says.

Watching her son flourish in a class of students his age has been a relief and a joy beyond imagination.

But if Shapiro and state lawmakers cut funding, many cyber charters will struggle to support students like the Phillips.

“At a time when everyone is acutely aware of the mental health and trauma needs of students, this proposal would be over a 40 percent cut in funding, suffocating our ability to meet the diverse needs of students in reaching their highest potential,” says Rich Jensen, CEO at Agora Cyber Charter School.

These closures would be devastating, considering Pennsylvania’s 13 cyber charters enroll about 57,000 students. Such drastic cuts would be equivalent to closing the second-largest school district in Pennsylvania. Finding a way to accommodate the individual needs of all those displaced students would be an educational crisis.

Politicians, as usual, talk out of both sides of their mouths. While they push cuts to one sector of public schools (i.e., cyber charters), these same lawmakers demand more money for another (i.e., district schools). However, districts are already flush with $6.8 billion in reserve funds.

Moreover, many lawmakers also propose higher taxes to subsidize spending hikes, despite Pennsylvania already achieving historic education funding. Pennsylvania spends $21,985 per student, making the Keystone State the seventh-highest spender nationally.

Can lawmakers look mothers like Stacy in the eye and claim charter schools, which save taxpayers 27 percent per student, are the source of Pennsylvania’s budget woes?

Of course they can’t. The campaign to defund educational alternatives has nothing to do with fiscal responsibility. Instead, it’s Shapiro’s attempt to appease the more radical elements of his party and his union backers.

Rather than defunding successful alternatives, districts should figure out why students leave their schools in the first place.

Parents don’t casually pull their kids out of school. When students enroll in a cyber charter school, it is rarely the first stop on their educational journey. Most likely, their local district schools have already failed them somehow. Meanwhile, in the 87 percent of districts that lack a brick-and-mortar charter school, cyber charters offer the only tuition-free alternative for students seeking to escape.

And make no mistake: Families are looking for an escape. Since the pandemic began, almost 51,000 students have left their school districts for alternatives, including 11,000 students in Philadelphia alone.

If lawmakers are willing to deny help to the most vulnerable students in the state, they are going to need a better answer for moms like Stacy.

Claiming to support public schools while slashing cyber charters will not suffice.

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As board president of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools (PCPCS) and a former president and CEO of a public cyber charter school, I am stunned by the overwhelming contempt projected by school district leaders and anti-charter school interest groups toward families who choose to enroll their children in a cyber charter school.

Public cyber charter schools do not hand-pick their students. They are public schools that are available to any child who resides in Pennsylvania.

Public cyber charter schools are as diverse as Pennsylvania: they have students and families from a variety of cultures, ethnicities, beliefs, and socioeconomic statuses; they often have a higher-than-average number of students who have disabilities, are struggling with mental health, are teen parents, are working full-time, are homeless, identify as LGBTQ+, or are low-income.

While unique in their own way, all public cyber charter school students have one objective in common: working toward securing their high school diploma to become responsible, productive citizens of society.

It has become fashionable to criticize those schools that give students an alternate pathway to achieving a successful future; however, it’s immature, irresponsible, and unbecoming of the same adults who are to set an example for our younger generations. Children and families are watching and witnessing the constant gnashing of teeth about the school that best meets their needs or provides them with the safety and security they desire.

Many of those who target public cyber charter schools were fortunate to have attended high-performing schools (maybe even private schools), lived in safe communities, and not experienced extreme poverty or the bullying and harassment that creates a barrier to learning.

Many families enroll their children in public cyber charter schools because they are the only alternative to their local school district. Many families cannot afford private school tuition, don’t have the means to relocate, or manage homeschooling because of employment.

There is no reason for these families to be criticized, patronized, or questioned for doing what they feel is in their children’s best interest. Pennsylvania’s public cyber charter schools provide students and families with a safe learning environment that ensures they will grow socially and academically.

I cannot fathom how cyber charter school families feel being at the center of this argument. The visceral attacks are only about money and never mention students.

Although public cyber charter school students already receive, on average, 30 percent less funding than their peers in school districts, anti-cyber charter advocates want even more.

On one side, opponents want to cut funding to cyber charter school students; on the other side, some are standing up for and defending the rights of parents to choose the school that best serves their children. I will always stand with students and families and defend their right to attend the school that best meets their needs.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, on February 6, proposed cutting funding to cyber charter school students by $262 million while at the same time proposing to increase funding to school districts by nearly $2 billion.

During his budget address, Shapiro stated, “We’ve got to invest more in our children, not less.”

He further said, “No school gets less than they did last year.” Public cyber schools will get less under his budget.

Last year, during an appearance on the Fox News Channel, he said, “The best way to ensure every child of God has a fair chance … is to ensure they have a proper education.”

Actions speak louder than words.

It is difficult to ascertain what our governor truly believes. His actions and words do not align with being pro-educational choice. That’s unfortunate because, when the governor took office, many were hopeful that he would expand and protect school choice options across the state, as has been done in numerous states nationwide. It’s no surprise that school choice is spreading rampantly: national polling studies show that nearly 75 percent of Americans of all parties overwhelmingly support school choice.

We’re only a few months away from learning who is on the side of students and families and who is on the side of special interest groups. If last year’s voucher fight is any indication, school choice opponents will fight hard to shut down public cyber charter schools.

Lawmakers and the governor need to review the mandate in the William Penn School District case handed down by the Commonwealth Court in February 2023: “The only requirement, [] imposed by the Constitution, is that every student receives a meaningful opportunity to succeed academically, socially, and civically, which requires that all students have access to a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary system of public education.”

Cutting funding to public cyber charter school students is morally wrong, ethically repugnant, and unconstitutional.

Let’s avoid another potential legal battle by leaving funding for cyber charter school students untouched. That’s the least we can do for our leaders and workers of tomorrow.

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