After facing mounting pressure from school districts across the commonwealth, Pennsylvania lawmakers included a series of cyber charter school reforms in budget-related bills that were signed into law by Gov. Josh Shapiro last month.
Cyber Charter Schools were first enacted by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2002 and have largely gone underregulated since.
There are currently 60,000 students enrolled in 14 cyber charter schools across Pennsylvania, and in 2021, those schools enrolled 99.7% of students looking to attend a charter school thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lawmakers included four accountability reforms in the budget and made changes to tuition payments school districts make to cyber charter schools, saving school districts $178 million per year.
“ The accountability reforms are incredibly meaningful reforms that are going to reshape how cyber charter schools operate and make the industry accountable for educating students,” Susan Spicka, Executive Director of Education Voters of Pennsylvania said in an interview.