Pennsylvania State Auditor Gen. Jack Wagner stunned his state this fall when he said there should be a moratorium on creation of cyber-charter and charter schools until a new state funding system is in place.
According to Wagner, the current funding system has serious inequities in how tax money is used to finance these public school alternatives.
Leading Pennsylvania educators were quick to defend--and denounce--Wagner's proposal.
Ron Sofo — superintendent of Freedom Area School District — said “in tough economic times — when everybody’s scraping to get by — you have to find a system that’s more fiscally responsible to everyone.”
Nick Trombetta — chief executive officer at the Midland-based Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School — said the present system “expects us to do as much (as a public school) with less (money per student) — and we’ve been doing a reasonably good job with it at PA Cyber — so I don’t see where we’re the problem."
In an op-ed published in the Philadelphia Daily News, Wagner explained his stand. "If you have a drafty home, you know it's smarter and cheaper to fix the broken window than to turn up the thermostat to stay warm," Wagner wrote.
"That's just common sens, and it's the same approach I've taken to fixing Pennsylvania's broken system for funding charter and cyber-charter schools, whose cost has risen at an unsustainable rate over the last four years to nearly $1 billion a year."
Click here to read all of Wagner's article.
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