In February of 2026, Governor Shapiro presented his annual State Budget Proposal and outlined his priorities and goals for the 2026-2027 fiscal year. In addition to the substantial cuts to cyber charter school funding that were enacted in November of 2025, Governor Shapiro is now proposing millions in additional cuts that would take effect in the 2026-2027 school year.

Insight PA is working alongside other cyber charter schools to develop a plan to advocate against any additional funding cuts and protect our school from additional policy changes that would create barriers for families to enroll in a cyber charter school or make it more difficult for our teachers and staff to do their jobs.

We will continue to provide updates on these advocacy activities and the progress we are making, but we also need your help in making sure the voices of our school’s students and families are heard by our elected leaders in Harrisburg. If you are interested in participating in these efforts, please complete this survey.

Background Information

The information below provides a brief overview of Insight PA and our student population, as well as the history of public school choice and cyber charter funding in Pennsylvania.

Our School

Insight PA is an online public school that opened in 2017 and serves students grades K-12. With certified teachers, innovative technology, opportunities for in-person activities and events, and a comprehensive curriculum, Insight PA provides students with a high-quality education that prepares them for success in college, career, and life. Our main offices are located in Exton (Chester County) and we have a Community Connection Center for our students and families in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Our Students

Insight PA currently serves over 3,100 students from across Pennsylvania, from 344 school districts. Our largest student population (39%) comes from the School District of Philadelphia. We educate a diverse student population with over 58% identified as economically disadvantaged, 27.7% requiring special education services, and over 250 students experiencing homelessness. Insight PA employs more than 340 dedicated personnel, including nearly 300 Pennsylvania-certified educators.

School choice has long been a luxury for Pennsylvania families who could afford to choose what school districts they live in or afford to send their students to private schools. It wasn’t until 1997 that “public school choice” became an option for PA families, in the form of public brick-and-mortar charter schools. Despite this monumental step forward, these charter schools primarily served students in urban centers, like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, and Reading. This still left the majority of PA families without a public school option, until the PA General Assembly authorized the creation of public cyber charter schools in 2002 and made students from all 500 school districts eligible to enroll. Thanks to public charter schools, both brick-and-mortar and cyber, every Pennsylvania family now has educational options available to them at no cost.

Public cyber charter schools are crucial for students who don’t thrive in traditional education settings. For those students and their families, public cyber charter schools have been a lifeline.

There are many reasons why a family may choose to enroll their student in a public cyber charter school, including the desire to take part in a cyber charter school’s specialized course of study, the flexibility cyber charters offer for students who want to advance beyond their assigned grade-level, medical restrictions that make in-person learning a challenge, concerns about safety, bullying or interpersonal challenges, or the need for the student to work to support their family or take care of a sick member of their family.

More often than not, students are enrolling in public cyber charter schools as a final attempt to find an academic home that meets their needs. Pennsylvania’s public cyber charter schools have become experts in giving students the tools and the support to rebuild and rediscover a love of learning.

Unlike school districts, public cyber charter schools lack the power to levy property taxes to supplement the federal and state revenue they are allocated. Public cyber charter schools receive the bulk of their funding through tuition reimbursements, which are unique for each school district. The tuition reimbursements are calculated by taking each school district’s budgeted total expenditures from the previous school year, minus 25+ deductions allowed for by PDE, then divided by the total enrollment of that school district. For students requiring special education services, this rate is supplemented by additional funding to accommodate their educational needs.

Due to the deductions allowed in the tuition reimbursement calculation, public cyber charter schools are already receiving at least 25-35% less funding per student than school districts.

During the 24-25 State Budget negotiations, language was enacted that cut an estimated $100 million in funding for cyber charter students who required special education services. Last year, during the 25-26 State Budget negotiations, lawmakers called for an even greater cut to public cyber charter schools. These elected officials claimed that public cyber charter schools didn’t need the same level of funding as brick-and-mortar schools and, without any data or research to back-up this claim, the largest funding cut to public cyber charter schools ever was enacted as part of the 25-26 State Budget.

At Insight PA, the impact of these cuts have been extremely challenging. Although we have maintained our rigorous academic offerings, student support services, and extracurricular activities, we had to make the difficult decision to lay-off over 200 staff members during the 25-26 school year.

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