In today’s 2016-2017 budget address, Governor Wolf proposed a dream for our state… A promise of more basic education funding for next year, based on the non-existent budget of this year.
Wolf claims he wants to choose a path that funds our schools, eliminates our deficit and puts Pennsylvania back on track. What everyone once again ignores, is that his plan is to only fund SOME of our schools. Digging deeper into the numbers behind yesterday’s speech, roughly $488 million would be diverted away from charter school students. The anti-charter stance taken by this administration has tried time and time again to reduce or eliminate funding for charter and cyber charter schools in the state.
While the promises add up, without a current budget in place and cash flowing to our students, the increases start to feel a bit like monopoly money. Schools are struggling to prepare their own budgets for 2016-2017, but our budgets are about math too; what difference will an extra $200 million make if the students of Pennsylvania never see it?
On top of the current imaginary budget, charter schools already operate with limited fund balances and do not collect taxes as a source of income, placing us in a very precarious state. This budget threatens to eliminate our ability to retain any fund balance.
Current legislation states that districts pay a percentage of their per pupil allotment for each student enrolled in a charter school. Since the districts are not receiving state funds, many have chosen to reduce or eliminate the percentage paid to charter schools, systematically depleting resources and threatening to shut our doors. Because of this, charters have been forced to make drastic cuts in vendor payments, staffing and even the structure of their school day.
Pennsylvania was recently ranked 27th in the country for charter law, mainly because the original laws enacted have not grown to match the growing demand and need for charter schools since 1997. With almost 135,000 students enrolled in charter schools, and 40,000 in cyber charters, if the Governor truly wanted to stand on the platform of education, an opportunity lies in front of him to modify these outdated laws to serve all children and commit to equally funding cyber education.
Families choose cyber charters, or other school options in Pennsylvania, when their traditional district has already failed the student. These families have made a conscious effort to give their child the best education option available to them, and they constantly feel invisible in the eyes of the law. The constant uphill battle, which seems to want to eliminate the cyber option, is an absolute disservice to the thousands of families who need this choice.
Remember that Wolf campaigned on a platform of “Schools that Teach.”
Remember that he promised to be a Governor for education and restore cuts that had been made in prior years.
Does anyone remember him casually mentioning that his pledges would only apply to students in traditional school districts? Parents who are concerned by these cuts need to remind the Governor and our legislators that in order to fulfill his promises of a brighter future for Pennsylvania children, choices that equally fund ALL of our children need to be made.
Mary Steffey is Board President of Agora Cyber Charter School, a tuition-free public virtual charter school serving approximately 8,500 Pennsylvania students in K-12, under the authorization of the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
