A battle is brewing over legislation that would drastically change the way cybercharter schools operate and slash their tuition rates by nearly half.

School districts that for years have complained about the cost of tuition and inflated budgets of cyberschools applaud the legislation, while advocates of the computer-based schools say the changes would undermine a viable alternative to traditional public schools.

Several bills have been proposed in the state House and Senate, but the one getting the most attention from cyberschool critics and supporters is House Bill 446.

Sponsored by state Rep. Karen Beyer, R-Lehigh County, the bill is a comprehensive overhaul of the laws governing cybercharter schools.

It would establish tuition rates of $3,000 to $5,000 per pupil and make the state Department of Education — not local school districts — pay cyberschool tuition; districts now pay about $5,500 to nearly $10,000 in tuition per student.

The bill also would subject the schools to more stringent budgeting and auditing requirements and limit the size of their fund balances.

Cybercharter schools "have been in existence for six years, and what we're trying to do is put them under stricter accountability standards because they are 100 percent taxpayer funded," Beyer said.

"I'm not trying to destroy them. I'm trying to make them right on behalf of the taxpayer."

The legislation, which is awaiting action by the House Education Committee, has won the support of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, the Pennsylvania State Education Association and other professional groups aligned with public schools.

The boards of local school districts also have formally endorsed the bill.

In Pennsylvania, 17,000 students attend 11 cybercharter schools, while about 2 million students are in the state's 501 public school districts.

Timothy Daniels, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools, calls HB 446 an "infamous" attempt to drive cybercharter schools out of business.

"The PSBA doesn't like the competition, and they're using (Beyer) as their champion to defend their cartel," he said.

He said parents of cyberschool students are fighting back.

They've sent 2,000 letters to legislators opposing HB 446, and hundreds of parents and students plan to participate in a "Cyber Day" protest Tuesday in the Capitol, Daniels said.

"The charters stand together," he said. "When you're up against Goliath, David better have his act together."

Chris Wakeley, the executive director of the House Education Committee, said he doesn't expect HB 446 to come up for review until after the Legislature approves a new budget.

Hearings on cybercharter schools are likely to be held over the summer before legislators act on the bill, he said.

Public school officials say legislative changes are long overdue.

"Your tax dollars and my tax dollars are being put into the owners of these cybercharter schools improperly every month that goes past," said James Adams, a Manheim Township school board member who drafted a resolution supporting HB 446.

"How long are we expected to continue bleeding like this?"

State Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak said in a recent interview that his department is "pushing the Legislature to do something right away."

Statewide, cybercharter schools are costing taxpayers about $100 million a year, Adams said.

Lancaster County school districts will pay about $6.5 million in tuition to cyberschools this year, according to Department of Education figures.

That funding will be offset by a reimbursement from the Department of Education of 27 percent, but districts must pay the total amount up front.

The tuition a district pays is based on what it spends to educate each of its pupils, a figure ranging from $9,000 to $13,000 a year.

The Department of Education reduces that number by about 25 percent for cybercharter schools, meaning districts pay $5,500 to nearly $10,000 in tuition per student.

Public school officials have complained cyberschools, which lack school buildings, buses, cafeterias, extracurricular programs and the other expensive services of traditional schools, should charge far less to educate students.

HB 446 would set cyberschool annual tuition at $5,000 per pupil for schools of 1,000 students or less, $4,000 for schools of 1,000 to 5,000 and $3,000 for larger schools.

The Department of Education would pay the tuition directly to the schools, which would be forced to limit their fund balances to 10 percent or less of operating costs.

While school districts must maintain a fund balance of no more than 12 percent, some cyberschools have balances as high as 54 percent, Adams said.

Zahorchak said eight of the 11 cybercharter schools in Pennsylvania have fund balances over 30 percent, "which means they're making lots of money and hoarding it."

Daniels said the schools need large balances because many school districts are withholding or delaying tuition payments.

"About half the school districts are not paying on time," Daniels said. "The large-scale dereliction of payments from school districts" is forcing cyberschools to keep extra money on hand, he said.

The schools also have high up-front costs because they provide computers and Internet connections to all students who need them.

"There are large, large technology costs," Daniels said. "That's the equivalent of a school building to a school district."

He said each cyberschool spends $600 to $700 dollars per student on technology costs.

Beyer said her bill proposes lower tuition rates at larger schools because they can purchase computers, Internet services and educational materials at lower prices.

That argument doesn't wash with Daniels.

"It's a specious notion that there's an economy of scale, as if (cyberschool students) are not taught by a teacher," he said.

He said cyberschools "are shooting for" a student-to-teacher ratio of 25 to 1, but he could not provide figures on what the average ratio is.

Regarding tuition costs, Daniels cited a 2006 national study by Augenblick, Palaich & Associates that estimates cyberschool instruction costs $7,200 to $8,300 per full-time student.

The study also found cyberschools spend about the same amount as regular public schools on education, minus the cost of buildings and transportation.

Daniels argues the existing state funding formula already takes the lack of "bricks-and-mortar" costs into account. With the reimbursement from the state, districts are paying only about 50 percent of their total per-pupil cost in cyberschool tuition, a figure he said he considers a bargain.

Beyer said she's willing to negotiate the tuition rates but officials at cybercharter schools have been unwilling to document their per-pupil costs.

"The cybercharter schools have not submitted evidence to contradict" the proposed rates of $3,000 to $5,000, she said.

Daniels calls that "a bald-faced lie."

"All of our cybercharter schools are public institutions. We're an open book," he said. "If they don't have the figures, it's because they haven't looked."

When asked, however, what cyberschools in Pennsylvania spend, on average, to educate a child, Daniels could not come up with a figure.

"Our range would be as low as $4,000 to $13,500," he said, citing the amount cyberschools are paid. "Like school districts, it costs us what we get."

Daniels said the real debate over cyberschools isn't about money — it's about quality and choice.

"The real question is: What's the best match for the individual student?" he said. "People just simply will demand a better fit for their children, and (cybercharter schools) will never go away."

Russell Rockwell said he's pleased with the education his two children are getting from Commonwealth Connections Academy cyberschool.

"It has worked very well for us," said Rockwell of Manheim Township, whose daughter, Gretchen, 13, and son, Alan, 11, enrolled last year.

The children, who previously attended public and private schools and were home-schooled, were allowed to pick which school they wanted to attend this year, and they picked Connections, Rockwell said.

"They both chose to do the cyberschooling because they knew they were doing better work," he said.

Critics of cyberschools say they, too, are looking out for the interests of children.

Columbia Borough School District spends $6,971 per student on cyberschool tuition, district business manager Laura Cowburn said. For special-education students, that number balloons to $16,622.

While each cyberschool student means one less pupil in a Columbia classroom, that doesn't reduce the cost the district must pay to run its schools and pay its employees, Cowburn said.

"Anything I pay to a charter school is an increase in my budget, so that reduces the amount of money I have left to provide my own services," she said.

"Anything that takes away from our kids, in terms of what we can do for the kids we have, is a negative."

E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com