Parkland Smarting From Loss Of Reimbursement For Charter Students

The state's decision not to for the tuition they pay to charter schools that enroll students from their district will cost Parkland School District about a quarter of a million dollars, officials said.

Parkland pays $9,000 for regular students and $16,000 for special education students who attend charter schools, according to John Vignone, director of business administration. About 70-80 children who live in the district attend charter schools. 

Previously, the state would reimburse the district for about a third of those payments, Vignone said. This year the state Legislature passed and Gov. Tom Corbett signed a budget in June that ended those reimbursements, except for the eight poorest school districts in the state, including Allentown.  

School boards lobbied against the cuts arguing that when a student leaves a district school for a charter school that doesn't mean the district has $9,000 or $16,000 less in expenses. The cost to light and heat the buildings are still the same and districts can rarely reduce their teaching staff unless the students departing for charter schools come from the same grade, critics of the cuts say. 

Pennsylvania Education Secretary Ron Tomalis has said the 30 percent charter school reimbursement was never intended to be a permanent replacement for money that follows a child to a charter school. Tomalis argues that the state should move away from funding institutions and toward funding the students so their families have more choices in how to educate them.