Pennsylvania State Capitol building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Photo: Shutterstock

Gov. Tom Wolf on Aug. 13 unveiled his plan to update what he said was Pennsylvania’s “flawed and outdated charter school law” by promulgating new regulations and proposing legislation to “strengthen charter school quality, accountability and transparency to control costs and improve outcomes for students.”

A Wolf administration statement said brick-and-mortar charter and cyber charter schools, and for-profit companies that manage many of them, are not held to the same ethical and transparency standards of traditional public schools. Despite the rising costs of charter schools to school districts and property taxpayers, school districts and the state government have limited authority to hold charter schools accountable.

“Pennsylvania’s charter school law is unfair for students, parents, school districts, and taxpayers,” Wolf said in a visit to the Allentown School District. “While many charter schools are succeeding, others, especially some cyber charter schools, are underperforming and we are not doing enough to hold them accountable to the taxpaying public and the children they serve.”

Among the executive actions announced Aug. 13 were the following directives to the state Department of Education:

• Allow school districts to limit student enrollment at charters that do not provide a high-quality, equitable education to students.
• Hold charter schools and their operators to the same transparency standards as school districts because they are public schools and receive more than $1.8 billion in state and property tax dollars annually.
• Establish a clear process that requires charters to accurately document their costs.
• Initiate a fee-for-service model to cover the department’s costs associated with implementing the charter school law.

Wolf also called for new legislation that would make sure local districts do not suffer financially because of funding directed to charter schools, and establishes a commission to make further recommendations for funding reforms.

“We have some high-quality charter schools in our commonwealth and my proposal holds charters accountable to the same standards we set for traditional public schools,” Wolf said.

“Through hard work and bipartisan compromise in Harrisburg, we have achieved pension reform and liquor reform. It’s time to reform the charter school law.”

Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, said Wolf should call a special session on charter school reform.

“The charter school funding formula was established 22 years ago and was the best available platform at that time,” Browne said. “However, now it has created an irreconcilable financial conflict between charter and traditional schools which mandates both in-depth review and responsible legislative and executive action to address.”