The Pennsylvania Senate is poised to pass Senate Bill 1085, a charter school bill that among its far reaching changes would give for-profit companies that operate colleges or universities the power to authorize new charter schools across the state. It’s no secret that the for-profit higher education sector is rife with fraud and abuse. Yet the Pennsylvania Senate is about to hand them the reins of approving new charters as well as the regular review of their operations.
The for-profit question aside; Senate Bill 1085 permits any college or university to authorize a charter. Since only half of students who enter college graduate after six years, with poor and minority students dropping out at jaw-dropping rates, it’s hard to see the wisdom of this approach. Even high quality charters should oppose this legislation because it will make what is clearly the train wreck of Pennsylvania’s charter school law—which already permits the formation and operation of charters that perform worse than their home school districts- a full-on catastrophe.
Purported to unshackle the growth in educational opportunity for school children across the state, the bill contains provisions that turn taxpayers into cash machines for charter schools who have no financial risk and would be granted relatively immutable contracts for ten years. Unfortunately, this statement is not hyperbole. The bill would give charters the sole power to determine how many students they wish to enroll each year, going so far as making voluntary enrollment agreements with school districts illegal. The bill then directs the Pennsylvania Department of Education to directly pay charter schools for each student enrolled deducting the amount paid to the charter from the home school district’s budget.
School boards who were elected to oversee school district finances may not be able to responsibly fulfill the responsibilities of their elected office, if this bill is passed. The bill runs roughshod over the powers of elected schools boards and the voters by giving unelected charter school operators the power to spend school tax dollars without any oversight or controls. Pennsylvanians who are already seeking legislative solutions to rising property taxes should rally to stop this bill or risk voter anger over the roof-raising local tax increases to pay for charter school growth as a result of this bill.
Without question there are many problems with how charter schools are currently authorized and reviewed. High performing charters are hamstrung by outdated legislation and delays in payments from school districts mean charters face too much financial risk. This legislation seeks to resolve these problems with heavy handed solutions that do not address the concrete problems that charters and school districts face.
Instead of the ill-advised measures in this bill, the state should create the conditions where school districts and charters must be partners, or at the very least have cooperative relationships, that ensure fiscal stability for both entities and educational quality for all students. This bill does not accomplish this goal. Senate Bill 1085 is bad for taxpayers, school districts, charters and students. For this reason we urge PCCY supporters to contact their Senator to stop this bill now.
For the record, Senators Tomlinson, Greenleaf, Dinniman and Williams each cast “yes” votes on this bill in the Senate Education Committee. Senator Leach, the only other Education Committee member from our region, voted against it.