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Exeter superintendent urges state action on cyber‑charter funding, board to consider countywide resolution
Summary
Superintendent Christy Haller urged the board to back a Berks County resolution pressing the state to cap cyber‑charter tuition and redirect funding to brick‑and‑mortar services; board discussion focused on potential savings, wording tweaks to the legislative letter, and next steps.
Superintendent Christy Haller urged the Exeter Township School Board on May 6 to support a countywide resolution asking Pennsylvania’s lawmakers to set a flat tuition for cyber charter schools and to curb what she described as excessive outflows of local taxpayer dollars.
Haller told the board that cyber charter tuition strips funding from local school services such as custodial operations, transportation, food service, pupil health and student activities — items that cost the district roughly $18 million in total in a near‑$90 million budget. She asked the board to sign a letter asking the legislature to authorize a uniform per‑pupil rate (a $10,000 example is cited in the letter) so more funding would remain to support local services and students.
Why it matters: the board’s decision could add Exeter’s voice to a countywide push to change how cyber charters are funded and prompt state lawmakers to consider a statewide cap and distribution reform.
Haller outlined cost comparisons she said show brick‑and‑mortar districts must budget for facility upkeep (about $8.6 million cited), transportation ($3.5 million), food service ($2.3 million), pupil health (about $1 million) and student activities ($2.2 million), while cyber charter operators pay none of those local costs but receive comparable per‑pupil tuition. She said Berks County superintendents and the intermediate unit concluded that the existing funding pattern costs public schools “millions and millions of dollars.”
Board members discussed wording in the draft letter. Director Timothy Morgan proposed changing a sentence that read “these two changes alone would save Pennsylvania taxpayers more than $300,000,000” to language saying the changes “would allow the Pennsylvania legislature to redistribute more than $300,000,000,” to avoid implying a direct cash refund to taxpayers. Haller and board members agreed to the wording change if the board approves the resolution.
Board members also asked about the local scale of cyber‑charter attendance. Business administrator Brian Fike provided counts from the district enrollment report: 38 students in the Exeter Cyber Academy (district program) and 101 Exeter residents attending out‑of‑district cyber charters as of March 31, 2025. Board members discussed the district’s outreach efforts to attract students back from cyber providers but said the district’s virtual academy’s primary responsibility is serving students who choose that option.
No formal vote was taken at the Committee of the Whole; the item was placed on the May voting agenda for a formal decision and the district will send the revised letter to legislators if the board approves it.
Ending: the board will consider the resolution at the upcoming voting meeting and may send a revised legislative letter asking for a flat statewide tuition and other cyber‑charter reforms if a majority approves.
