Education Leaders Call for Cyber Charter School Funding Reform in Pennsylvania

• Asia Tabb
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  Asia Tabb is the Host and Producer for WITF’s The Spark.
  
  She began her start in radio when she joined legendary radio/ host producer, Doc Christian. She worked closely with Doc for her role on “The Gospel Express, on WHOV 88.1 FM and was a host for “Unrestricted Praise” at Praise FM.
  
  Previously she was an anchor in Shreveport, Louisiana at KTAL/KMSS. Asia also worked as a Multi-Media Journalist at WHP-TV here in Harrisburg, PA.
  
  Asia got her break into news at KTVO in Ottumwa, Ia. While the 2020 caucuses were gearing up. Asia followed many candidates through their campaign trail from Senator Cory Booker, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and 46th President of the United States Joe Biden.
  
  Asia was born and raised in Norfolk, Va. She graduated from Old Dominion University in 2018 with a major in Communications.
  
  Asia is extremely friendly so don’t be afraid to say hi if you see her out and about.

 Tony Dejak / The Associated Press

Pennsylvania's 14 cyber charters receive public funds to pay for students' tuition, with the money coming from school districts.

Aired; May 15th, 2025.

As the debate over public education funding continues in Pennsylvania, a concern from school administrators and business officials are calling for urgent reform of how cyber charter schools are funded. At the heart of their concern: a decades-old funding formula they say unfairly drains resources from public schools and lacks accountability.

Dr. Sherri Smith, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA), and Hannah Barrick, Executive Director with the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO), joined The Spark to explain why they believe the time for legislative action is now.

Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts are legally obligated to pay tuition for each student residing in their district who attends a cyber charter school. But according to Berrick, the way that tuition is calculated doesn’t reflect the actual cost of educating students online.

“School districts and their taxpayers are paying more than a billion dollars annually to cyber charter schools to educate a little less than 60,000 students,” she said. “That’s a big deal because it is consistently creating funding challenges for schools. For special education tuition alone, costs are growing by an average of about 17% per year.”

Smith echoed those concerns, noting that the current system is “overfeeding” cyber charter schools. “When you have tons of money leaving our schools that we need—especially as costs increase across the board—it makes it harder to meet the needs of students in traditional classrooms.”

Listen to the podcast to hear the full conversation.