Keith Srakocic, Associated Press Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., walks with his wife, Karen, to a news conference today, Downtown. Click photo for larger image.

Penn Hills school officials waited too long before questioning the residency of U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and his family, according to a preliminary ruling by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. As a result, Santorum is still considered a Penn Hills resident and does not need to repay the Penn Hills School District the tuition it spent for the senator's eldest five children to attend the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School.

The ruling was made by Barry Kramer, chief hearing officer for the state's Office of General Counsel. Estimates of the amount in question ranged from the $34,000 Santorum claims was paid to the $67,000 school board members say they paid.

If the school district had an objection to Santorum's residency, Kramer stated in the ruling made public today, it had to file a complaint within seven days of the Santorums' notifying the district that their children would attend the charter school. For the 2003-2004 school year, that deadline was July 16, 2003, and for the 2004-2005 school year, it was June 30, 2004.

The district, however, failed to contest the children's residence until Dec. 8, 2004, Kramer stated in a proposed ruling sent last Friday to Education Secretary Francis Barnes.

"Penn Hills' inexplicable failure to object within the statutorily mandated timeline, or even within a reasonable approximation of that timeline, nullifies its tardy objection," Kramer stated. "Absent a showing of fraud, misrepresentation, a significant change in circumstances of residency or some other circumstance, it would be unreasonable and unfair to allow school districts an unlimited temporal opportunity to challenge a child's residency. To do so would deprive cyber charter schools of any certainty regarding their budgets or administrative operations for the current year or years past."

Yesterday, Santorum said he and his wife, Karen, are pleased the state dismissed "the baseless and politically motivated charges of the Penn Hills School District."

"Coincidentally, not until it was time for my re-election campaign did these questions about our children's education arise, and it was even less of a coincidence that these allegations originated from the Democratic chair of Penn Hills who is also a member of the Penn Hills school board," Santorum said in a statement he read today outside the State Office Building, Downtown.

Santorum did not respond to questions after the remarks. He and his wife now homeschool their children in Virginia, where they live most of the time.

Erin Vecchio, the Democratic chairwoman and school board member who pressed the district to challenge Santorum's residency, said her criticisms are motivated by common sense, not politics.

The house on Stephens Lane that the Santorums bought in 1997 after moving from Mt. Lebanon has been rented out almost since it was purchased, Vecchio said. Santorum often votes in Penn Hills by absentee ballot and although his driver's license lists the Stephens Lane address as his residence, Santorum freely acknowledges that he and his family spend most of their time in their home in Leesburg, Va., because he usually is working in Washington, D.C.

"I guess because he's a U.S. senator, he can get away with anything," Vecchio said.

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More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.