Hearing Confirms Cuts to Pennsylvania’s Public Cyber Charter Schools Would Be Devastating for Our Most At-Risk Students
HARRISBURG - With Gov. Josh Shapiro threatening to again reduce funding for Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools, state Rep. Barb Gleim (R-Cumberland) and colleagues in the General Assembly held a panel discussion about online learning Wednesday at the Reach Cyber Charter School in Enola.
“Approximately 65,000 students are served by 14 public cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania,” Gleim said. “These schools endured a more than $100 million cut in the 2024-25 state budget, and Gov. Josh Shapiro is pushing for an even deeper cut as part of his 2025-26 spending proposal…all while claiming to be a supporter of school choice.”
Public cyber charter schools receive the bulk of their funding through tuition reimbursement payments from each student’s home school district. The budget proposal being advanced by House Democrats and the Shapiro administration would institute guidelines that reduce cyber charter spending by between $185 million and $300 million.
In addition to Reach school students, testifiers included a parent who has both a child attending the Reach school and a child in a public brick-and-mortar school system. She believes cutting funding for cyber schools while increasing funding for brick-and-mortar schools creates an imbalance that can directly impact students and the educational opportunities they receive.
“She feels anyone who wants to cut cyber charter school funding is telling her that one of her children is more important that the other,” said state Rep. Marc Anderson (R-Dillsburg). “As a former schoolteacher, I’ve witnessed the different educational needs students have and believe we must maintain the cyber charter option if we truly value the worth of a quality education for every child.”
“Not all parents who are looking for alternatives to their brick-and-mortar public school are able financially to send their child to a private school, so they need options to meet their child’s unique needs,” added Sen. Dawn Keefer (R-31). “Our educational system is not ‘one size fits all.’ We need to meet students where they are or we are going to lose an entire generation.”
“Those who support reducing funding allege that the cyber charter atmosphere diminishes opportunities, which is the complete opposite of what we heard from the thriving students who testified today,” added Rep. Joe D’Orsie (R-Manchester). “We, as legislators, are required by the Pennsylvania Constitution to maintain and support ‘a thorough and efficient system of public education’ for every student. Charter and cyber charter schools allow us to fulfill that mandate.”
The panel also received testimony from Reach Cyber Charter School teachers, school choice stakeholders and cyber charter school leaders from across the state.
Every legislator involved in Wednesday’s hearing is a member of the Freedom Caucus and sits on their respective House or Senate Education Committee.