Cyber school squabble. (Notebook: up-to-date and usable education information from schools, government, business, research and professional organizations).

District administrators in Pennsylvania claim a new charter cyber school, Einstein Academy, is incorrectly billing them to cover public education costs. According to state law, districts are required to cover 75 percent of a charter school's expenses for educating a student. The district is allowed to retain the remaining 25 percent for its own administrative costs. In the case of Einstein Academy, however, district superintendents say they are being asked to reimburse Einstein for educating students who have left the cyber school and now attend traditional public schools, or those that are being home schooled and not entitled to public education funds.

Administrators in 95 school districts have retained The Levin Group, Huntingdon Valley, Pa., to file legal complaints against Einstein. The cyber school's current enrollment totals 2,300. The school, which went online in September, has physical locations in both Philadelphia and at the Morrisville (Pa.) High School. Morrisville Borough School District officially granted Einstein its charter.

"Einstein is billing our district and we've been advised by counsel not to pay," says Gerald Huesken, superintendent of Conestoga Valley School District. Huesken estimates that three of every four students in his district who are enrolled in cyber charter schools were home-schooled last year. He alleges that Einstein Academy is charging school districts to educate students who are only home schooled.

Einstein Academy disputes the charges. Mimi Rothschild, who says she is one of the academy's founders, calls the complaints a challenge to her school's "right to exist." "I can tell you exactly what is going on. The status quo is desperately trying to hold on to a long, tightly held monopoly in public education," she says.

"Public school administrators are resisting innovation," she says. Students enrolled at Einstein may have been home schooled in the past, but they are now part of the public school system, she says.

The lead administrator at Morrisville Borough School District--the man who oversees Einstein's charter--does concede that the new school has made accounting and billing errors. But he says the billing mistakes were inadvertent oversights made by new staff. Given that the per-pupil education cost varies from district to district, initial mistakes are understandable, if not excusable, says John Gould, Morrisville superintendent. He claims Einstein's staff is rectifying the billing problems.

Allison Snyder, an attorney for The Levin Group, remains dissatisfied. The law firm is moving forward with legal challenges to Einstein Academy and is challenging the state law that allows cyber charter schools to be reimbursed for public education.

Einstein Academy, while officially a not-for-profit entity, is admittedly managed by TutorBots, a for-profit technology company that collects funds from Einstein. "The charter school law requires that these schools be organized public, non-profit corporations," she says.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education did not return repeated telephone calls.

www.einsteinacademy.org