Editor: In Rep. Peter Schweyer’s Feb. 15 column, The Choice for Is Clear for Educating Our Children, We Need to Go Big, he omits one major policy change that he and Gov. Josh Shapiro are advocating for in the upcoming state budget: cutting millions of dollars in funding to public school students who attend public cyber charter schools.
This is not only unconstitutional, due to it reducing funding to one group of students while significantly increasing funding for another group, but it conflicts with the governor’s statement that “no school gets less than they did last year.”
Rep. Schweyer and his colleagues in the state House and state Senate must reject calls for funding cuts to public cyber charter school students; these students deserve the same funding as their peers in traditional public schools.
Many families choose to send their children to a public cyber charter school because the local school district is not meeting their needs, their children feel unsafe or are bullied, or the relationship with the local district is broken.
Compared to other public schools across the state, Commonwealth Charter Academy, a comprehensive online public school, has higher than the state average of students with special needs and anxiety and students who are teenage parents, LGBTQ+, ethnically diverse, and low-income. These students need extra support, which CCA willingly provides.
Public cyber charter school students should not be left behind. They, too, deserve to receive a high-quality education in a school that meets their unique needs and learning styles.
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