Real Savings: Cutting Cybers vs. School Choice

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Post-Gazette have stories on the renewed push to reduce cyber school funding.

Rep. Karen Beyer and other proponents are touting that:

• The bill would save $18 million ($13 million when you deduct reimbursements to districts, or, $3.76 per homeowner).
• Cyber schools have “large surpluses.” This ignores that cybers need fund surpluses when districts refuse to pay and that many school districts have large surpluses – some are even raising property taxes in spite of large surpluses.
• Cybers don’t have buildings, so they need less money. Of course, cyber schools already receive about 30% less funding, since they don’t get money for buildings (though their technology cost are significantly higher than school districts)

The most astonishing quote is when Rep. Beyer says “Any parochial school will tell you they can more than educate a child for $7,000.” While this is true (parochial schools’ tuition is in the $2,500-$5,000 range, and their total costs are likely around $4,000-$7,000 per pupil) it says less about cyber schools than it does about the overspending and Edifice Complex of school districts.

Consider that cyber schools educate 20,000 students at about $9,000 per-pupil, compared with school districts with 1,800,000 students @ $12,000 per-pupil. Where is the real taxpayer savings? Representative Beyer should either push for caps on school district spending, or push for more school choice programs – since school choice saves taxpayers.

More on cyber schools and how school choice saves students and taxpayers at SchoolChoiceSaves.org