A recent report from Auditor General Tim DeFoor confirms what we have long thought – the state simply must reform its method of funding cyber charter schools.

DeFoor’s audit took a look at the budgets of five statewide cyber charters over a three-year period and found that revenue at those five cyber charters more than doubled to $898 million while the cyber charters’ savings grew by 144%.

At the same time, here in Warren County, we’re going through the difficult process of closing two high schools because the Warren County School District can’t operate sustainably with the revenue it receives from the state and local taxpayers.

Something has to change.

School choice is important, in our opinion. Parents should have some choice in the type of education their child receives, and if they aren’t happy with public school options they should have the cyber charter option. But that option shouldn’t come at the expense of public schools, either. Cyber charter funding operates on a reimbursement system in which charters receive funding based on spending from the public school district where a student lives. That means cyber charters can receive funding along a spectrum that can range from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars per student depending on where a student is from. That makes little sense given that operating a cyber charter should be less expensive than operating a brick-and-mortar school building – as Warren County residents well know.

The state’s task here is simple. It’s time to figure out exactly how much it should cost to educate a student whose parents choose a cyber school and arrive at a reimbursement rate that makes sense.

Remember, brick-and-mortar school districts won a lawsuit for more state support because a judge found they were underfunded for decades. As state aid to its public schools increases so will funding to cyber charters that are right now banking millions of dollars a year in savings while public schools, especially rural ones, struggle to keep their doors open.

We should keep school choice but at a price that makes sense. State officials must figure out a rational reimbursement rate for cyber charter schools so that school funding is a more level playing field.