Times Leader by Educational Leadership Team, Greater Nanticoke Area School District, May 11, 2021

The purpose of this letter is to inform Greater Nanticoke Area taxpayers that cyber school tuition is not free. Cyber schools cost taxpayers and each local school district a significant amount of money annually. Across the state of Pennsylvania, cyber charter schools were paid an average of $800,000 annually from a local school district’s budget (standard deviation about $3,100,000). Such financial losses to traditional brick and mortar schools have hit the most economically disadvantaged districts the hardest during the pandemic. Public school district’s pay outside cyber charter schools for each student that attends. This is taxpayer money that leaves our neighborhood school, forcing the district to make tough decisions about programs, education, staffing and personnel cuts. This adversely impacts our students and community. GNA currently has 170 students enrolled in outside cyber charter schools. The additional cost is unnecessary because GNA has its own Cyber Academy. The school district is paying up to 12 different outside cyber charter schools $2.5 million dollars per year, which is at the expense of the Greater Nanticoke Area taxpayers.