Warren County school board members sent a united message to Harrisburg at Monday’s board meeting — find a better way to fund cyber charter schools.

Board members voted unanimously to approve a resolution supporting Senate Bill 34 and House Bill 526 that support school districts who provide their own cyber learning program and reforms funding for cyber charter schools statewide.

Board President Donna Zariczny said that one bill stipulates if a school district has its own cyber program and a student chooses to go elsewhere that tuition is not funded. The other bill deals with how cyber charter schools are funded and has been addressed in the past. “It’s good to reestablish our numbers because they change over time,” she said.

Resolution 19-04-02 states that it is: “a resolution petitioning the Pennsylvania General Assembly to take immediate action to correct the tuition expenses paid for regular and special education students to cyber charter schools so that it is based on the actual costs of education their students and relieves the financial burden on school districts and local taxpayers.”

With the exception of the 2016-17 school year, the district has spent more than $1 million each year in total tuition payments to cyber schools. The total tuition payment for the 2016-17 school year was $977,795. This year’s figures are $852,195 in regular education payments for cyber schools and $500,548 in special education for a total of $1,352,743.

According to the resolution, the current funding formula for cyber charter schools is based on school district expenditures with no relationship to the actual instructional costs of the students attending a charter school.

The current charter school payment system causes school districts to overpay for special education costs, with charter schools receiving a $100 million windfall that is growing.