(WTAJ) — Following a push amongst local educators to cap the funding school districts pay towards cyber charter schools, cyber charter schools argue a cap will be unfair to their students.
With the Shapiro Administration looking to cap cyber charter tuition to $8,000 per student, per year, the online educators, like The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (PA Cyber), one of the state’s largest cyber schools, said it won’t be enough to cover their costs.
“We provide thousands of extracurricular activities every year — clubs, field trips. We, like I said, we have a prom tomorrow night in Pittsburgh on the Gateway Clipper, and one next weekend up in Eastern Pennsylvania. We do two live graduation ceremonies. You know, thousands of people attend. We do a trip overseas in the summer just like most traditional schools do,” said Brian Hayden, Chief Executive Officer of PA Cyber.
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But critics said there’s not enough oversight of cyber schools when it comes to spending, academics and attendance. PA Cyber has a 4-year graduation rate of 61%. While PA Cyber has been criticized for that low graduation, Hayden said the blame isn’t only on them…