HARRISBURG -- A Penn Hills Democrat insists he's merely trying to tighten up residency rules for online charter schools and isn't trying to embarrass U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum.

Rick Santorum

However, because the two-term Republican senator with a home in Virginia was, until recently, a high-profile user of cyber schools for his children, some people think the political intent of the measure is unmistakable.

"My aim is not to take a shot at Rick Santorum," state Rep. Tony DeLuca said yesterday about a measure to make residency rules for cyber charter schools more restrictive.

The measure was approved by the state House last week, but its fate in the Senate is uncertain.

A 2002 Pennsylvania law requires local school districts to pay tuition of residents enrolled in a cyber charter school, but it doesn't make clear whether that requirement applies to students whose families live out of state, DeLuca said.

"It's time to clear up the confusion," DeLuca said.

Under his proposal, a Pennsylvania school district would pay for a student's cyber school tuition only if that student physically lives in the school district with his parents or guardians for "at least 183 nights of the paid school year."

Santorum, who owns a house in Penn Hills, faced criticism last year when it was disclosed that the Penn Hills School District had paid more than $67,000 for the cyber school tuition of five of his children, even though they lived most of the year in Virginia, not Penn Hills.

The children had been enrolled at a Beaver County-based cyber school since 2001-02. The tuition cost would have risen by another $37,000 for 2004-05, but the children were enrolled for only the start of the school year before Santorum withdrew them in favor of home schooling.

National Democrats have said that one of their main goals in 2006 is to defeat Santorum, the third-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate. He will almost certainly be facing a well-known and tough Democratic opponent, Robert P. Casey Jr., the state treasurer.

A Santorum political adviser, John Brabender of Pittsburgh, agreed there is "a need to clarify the residency rule for cyber schools'' because different school districts have interpreted it differently.

He added, "I hope this is being done with no political considerations in mind and in the best interests of Pennsylvania's children."

DeLuca said, "What I'm proposing is the right thing to do," because costs of cyber schools can impose a hefty financial burden on local school districts.

DeLuca's victory is somewhat surprising, though, because the House, like the Senate, is controlled by Republicans. DeLuca thanked GOP House leaders for allowing a vote on his amendment, but it could still die in the Senate.

DeLuca said his bill isn't part of the national Democratic effort to defeat Santorum. He conceded that Santorum "happened to be the catalyst" for the change in residency rules and the issue of cyber school residency "probably wouldn't have come up if he weren't a high-profile person."

"Cyber schools are continuing to grow," he said. "This could cost school districts all over the state a ton of money. We need to have some type of control on these schools. I would be doing this regardless of who the U.S. senator was, regardless of whether he's a Democrat or Republican."

Santorum spokesman Robert Traynham called DeLuca's bill "a misguided piece of legislation" that would have negative ramifications far beyond one particular family.

"This is legislation that severely limits the options of individuals who are serving their country but want to maintain their home state ties" by enrolling their children in their home school district, he said.

Traynham contended that requiring children to live in a particular school district for 183 days a year would hurt "individuals serving in military or with the clergy, as well as elected officials that are serving the country here in Washington and abroad."