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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20130&cosponId=11902
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House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: February 27, 2013 09:50 AM
From: Representative Dan Truitt
To: All House members
Subject: Charter School Funding Reform
 

I don’t think anyone reading this memo will argue that our charter school funding formulas are not in desperate need of an update. Charter school students, teachers, and administrators are pioneers in education and charter schools are evolving into forms never anticipated. There’s no question that an update to charter school funding formulas is needed. The real question is how to update them in a way that is fair to all parties involved.

Even though charter schools already operate with less funding than traditional public schools, much concern has been raised about inequities in our charter school funding procedures that benefit charter schools. However, we must not let a desire to fix these inequities lead us to treating charter school students as second-class citizens deserving of any less funding than their peers in traditional public schools and we must not stifle the ability of charter schools to try new things that could eventually benefit all children of our state.

To that end, I will soon introduce legislation to streamline charter school funding, fix the inequities that exist on BOTH sides, and START to address the existence of new categories of charter schools. Although we need additional legislation to address charter school authorization, accountability, and transparency, this proposal is intended to address only funding issues and will include two bills.



Document #1

Introduced as HB970

Description:

The first bill will be the primary vehicle to fix all of the inequities that are built into the PDE-363 and our current charter school funding formula.  This bill will make the following changes:

1 – Eliminate the pension reimbursement paid by the state to the charter schools.

2A – Eliminate the lease reimbursement paid by the state to the charter schools.

2B – Delete the category 4000 (facilities) deduction from the PDE-363.

2C – Delete the category 5000 (financing) deduction from the PDE-363.
 
3A – ADD a deduction to the PDE-363 for money paid to charter schools for basic education only.
 
3B – Require districts to SUBTRACT charter school students from their “Average Daily Membership” (ADM) on the PDE-363.
 
4A – ADD a deduction to the PDE-363 for a district’s own cyber programs.
 
4B – Require districts to SUBTRACT students in their cyber programs from their ADM on the PDE-363.
 
5A – Allow school districts to deduct ALL pre-K expenses as opposed to just the federal portion.
5B – Require districts to SUBTRACT all pre-K students from their ADM on the PDE-363.
 
6A – Establish the definition of a “learning center” which is essentially a brick and mortar facility that cyber-charter schools use to enhance the education of cyber school students.
 
6B – ADD a deduction to the PDE-363 for 30% of category 4000 and category 5000 expenses.This deduction would apply only to payments to cyber-charter schools without learning centers.
 
6C – ADD a deduction to the PDE-363 for 15% of category 4000 expenses and category 5000 expenses.This deduction would apply only to payments to cyber-charter schools with learning centers.
 
7 – Require districts to provide transportation for students who attend cyber-charter schools with learning centers.
 
8 – Prohibit school districts from charging charter schools, including cyber charter schools, for transporting special education students to an IU unit or other facility away from the charter school campus.
 
A detailed rationale for the items above is attached to this memo along with samples of some actual completed PDE-363 forms, for reference.
  View Attachment
 

Document #2

Introduced as HB971

Description:

The second bill would allow charter schools to choose to receive their payments directly from the state or from their student's resident school district.  This same bill would apply the same fund balance caps to charter schools that are currently applied to traditional public schools. 

Putting direct pay and fund balance caps in the same bill is critical because one of the main reasons that charter schools like to carry higher fund balances is because they do not receive timely payments from their school districts.  We can cap their fund balances if we can guarantee them timely payments.