Cyber Charter Schools saw a surge in enrollment this past school year, due to the pandemic.
Now that's left traditional schools in a financial pinch.
That's because under current state law, school districts pay cyber schools at the same cost-per-pupil rate they count on to educate students in traditional classrooms, even though cyber schools are much cheaper to run than brick-and-mortar buildings.
Dr. Robert Scherrer is Executive Director of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit says it affects school programs. "So that has created a financial drain on the home school district and that's where you start to run into problems with continuing to support certain academic programs or other extracurricular activities."
He says the state house and senate are now considering separate bills to reform school funding.
One of them calls for a flat rate of $9,500 for cyber students. That would save districts more than $100 million statewide.