Controversial legislation that could affect the future of popular cyber charter schools will be the focus of hearings Downtown today and in Beaver County tomorrow.

State Reps. Karen D. Beyer, R-Lehigh, and Tony DeLuca, D-Penn Hills, have introduced bills that would change the way cyber schools are funded. Ms. Beyer said cyber charters have "far less overhead" than regular public schools and absorb more money than they need from school districts, with some amassing unacceptably large fund balances as a result.

She said she wants the state's precious education subsidies used more efficiently.

"These are 100 percent taxpayer-funded schools," she said of cyber charters. "They're going to conduct themselves like 100 percent taxpayer-funded schools."

Critics say her bill represents an attempt by school districts and labor unions to gang up on the competition.

"It's a cartel," Timothy Daniels, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools, said of the cyber charters' opponents. Cyber charters have shaken up the education system, Dr. Daniels said, the way low-budget carrier Southwest Airlines has the stodgy airline industry.

In all, the House Education Committee hearings will discuss four bills pertaining to cyber charters -- public schools that currently admit students without tuition and provide instruction over the Internet. The state's 11 cyber charters enrolled about 17,000 students in 2006-07, and the schools said their popularity continues to grow, particularly among students from low-performing districts and families interested in education innovation.

The hearings run from 1 to 4 p.m. today in Lawrence Hall at Point Park University and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow in the Library Building at Community College of Beaver County in Monaca. Speakers over the two days are to include state Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak, Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers President John Tarka and representatives of school districts and cyber charters.

If a student opts to attend a cyber charter, the child's home district currently must foot the bill. The cost is about 80 percent of the district's per-pupil rate. That amount varies widely by district, though the state reimburses each district about 30 percent of its cyber charter costs.

Ms. Beyer's bill would tie payments to a cyber charter's "actual, audited cost" or require the Education Department to establish a statewide, per-child payment for cyber charters. Mr. DeLuca's bill would set payment according to the cyber charter's size -- $5,000 per child for the smallest cyber charters and $3,000 per child for the largest.

Ammunition for such proposals came in a recent report from state Auditor General Jack Wagner, who found that audits of three cyber charters "showed that all three received hundreds of thousands of dollars more in reimbursement money than their actual costs for educating students."

Freedom Area School District Superintendent Ron Sofo helped put together a "Regional Choice Initiative" that this school year will allow 14 districts in Beaver and Lawrence counties to share one another's students, so he said he isn't against the concepts of school choice or cyber charters.

But Dr. Sofo, whose district spent more than $152,000 on cyber charters last school year, said he would like to see the schools' payments tied to their actual costs. He said the Legislature's intervention is necessary because a vendor who can get the state to pay $1,000 for a hammer will have little incentive to offer one for $50.

Dr. Daniels and Nick Trombetta, chief executive officer of Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, based in Midland, Beaver County, said the focus on cyber charters is misplaced. They said legislators instead should focus on such broader issues as the lack of equity in education that's caused by uneven spending among school districts.

"This, to me, seems to be a diversion from bigger topics that need to be addressed," Dr. Trombetta, whose cyber charter may enroll as many as 7,000 students next school year, said of Ms. Beyer's bill.

The legislation by Ms. Beyer and Mr. DeLuca would remove school districts from the role of middlemen, requiring the state to fund cyber charters directly. The bills also would address other aspects of cyber schools' operations.

A bill by Rep. John Pallone, D-New Kensington, would prohibit truant students from enrolling in cyber charters, and a bill by Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware, could force families to pay tuition if their home districts operate cyber charter schools and the families choose to enroll in another entity's cyber charter.