State Auditor General Jack Wagner stepped up his criticism of the way Pennsylvania finances charter and cyber-charter schools.
 
Wagner on Wednesday released a report showing that Pennsylvania spent more on the publicly funded, privately run schools among the five states with the most students in those schools.
 
Charter and cyber-charters receive tax money based on what it would cost to educate students in their home school districts. Wagner says taxpayers could save more than $300-million a year by setting one rate for bricks-and-mortar charter schools and another for Internet-based cyber charters, and limiting those payments to the national average.
 
Ken Kilpatrick of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools says the group prefers a bill calling for a statewide study of the issue with a deadline of March 2013.