State proposes a charter school accountability plan to save nearly $400 million

Charter school advocates urge caution, that now is not the time to cut funding

• Merideth Bucher/WITF
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  Producer of WITF's Smart Talk

Airdate: Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced a charter school accountability plan earlier this month that “realigns what taxpayers are paying with what it costs to provide a charter option for students.”

The proposals promise an estimated $395 million a year in savings and stops “draining funds from traditional public schools at a time they can least afford it.”

In Pennsylvania, public charter schools don’t charge tuition. The charters receive the majority of funding from their students’ resident school districts, which is based on a statutory funding formula set by the state. The “Charter School Accountability Plan would change the funding formula, in addition to creating performance standards and ethical admin requirements.

Charter school administrators say, not so fast. That a post-pandemic education landscape is not the time to change funding for charter schools. They charge the administration’s ‘cost savings’ plan for school districts is nothing more than an “attack on families who have exercised their right to choose a public charter school option for their children.”

Appearing on Smart Talk Tuesday to present both sides of this divisive issue are Pennsylvania acting Secretary of Education Noe Ortega, Democratic state Rep. Joe Ciresi of Montgomery County, Democratic state Senator Lindsey Williams serving Allegheny County, and Sherri Smith, Ed.D., Deputy Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education. Joining the conversation later are Lenny McAllister, Chief Executive Officer, PA Coalition of Public Charter Schools and Vas Scoumis, CEO of Manchester Academic Charter School on the North Side of Pittsburgh.