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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

PA Public Schools Facing Gaps Left by Loss of Charter School Reimbursement

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Monday, April 14, 2014   

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Educators say the loss of state funding for helping communities in Pennsylvania accommodate the financial effect of charter schools is translating to larger class sizes, and less money for staff, programs and textbooks.

According to Susan Gobreski, executive director of the group Education Voters of Pennsylvania, the situation highlights a fundamental problem with the state's education funding formula.

"One of the things that we believe is that the state should be looking at restoring some of the cuts that have been made, so that districts are able to provide the services that they were able to provide, until we get a good funding formula put into place," she said.

Gobreski said the charter school reimbursement could act as a stopgap, in terms of giving school districts more resources to work with.

"It's not the districts' fault, it's not the charter schools' fault: it's a flaw of the funding formula," she said.

Gobreski said the charter school reimbursement line is a reasonable and fair way to distribute money to provide some immediate relief to districts that have been hit extraordinarily hard by state cuts and until a funding formula is adopted, the line item should be restored.

A review of state allocation changes shows that many districts across the state lost more than $1 million due to the cuts in compensation for charter school expenses. In the 2010-2011 school year, the York City School District, for example, received $4.5 million from the state for its students who attended charter schools. Erie got $2.5 million and Allentown, $2.1 million. School districts in Coatesville, Bethlehem, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have seen their charter school reimbursements cut completely.






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