Should Local School Districts Open Their Own Cyber Schools?
Neshannock Township School District is offering its own online learning academy to compete with other nonprofit and for-profit cyber charter schools.
Reasons vary as to why people decide to enroll their children in cyber schools. For some, it's to avoid disciplinary and behavior problems they feel are rampant in the brick-and-mortar school. Others feel their child is not thriving in public school and choose cyber school instead of charter, private or parochial options. Regardless of the reason, almost 30,000 students in Pennsylvania are being served by cyber schools, according to the Commonwealth Foundation. Cyber schools remain controversial, though, in terms of real student success, costs and the money they drain from public schools. Neshannock Township School District, located just north of New Castle, seems to have come up with a way to keep that money in-house while still providing…
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NE12Ukid
6:10 pm on Monday, October 1, 2012
...•Removing "double dip" for pension costs by charter schools. School district's cost for retirement expenditures is not subtracted from expenditures in calculation that determines funding for charters and sets up a "double dip" since state law guarantees charter schools reimbursement for retirement costs. The PA Association of School Business Officials estimates between 2011-12 and 2016-17, … more ›