HARRISBURG -- Quaker Valley School District pays $11,183 for each of its students attending a Pennsylvania cyber charter school. Elizabeth Forward pays $7,921 for its students to attend the same schools.

A group of state representatives wants to standardize -- and reduce -- the tuition paid to cyber charter schools, which deliver instruction through the Internet rather than in school buildings. The amounts are based on a complicated formula that translates roughly into 70 percent of each sending district's per-pupil spending.

State Rep. Karen Beyer, R-Lehigh, has proposed a standard cyber-school tuition of $7,020 per pupil, down from the average of roughly $9,000 now, she said.

"Any parochial school will tell you they can more than educate a child for $7,000," Ms. Beyer said.

The reduction would save about $18.5 million annually statewide. About 23,000 students attend Pennsylvania's 11 cyber charter schools.

Districts in Allegheny County would save the most, $4.5 million a year, said county school officials who stumped for the legislation at a Capitol news conference yesterday.

Ms. Beyer said cyber charter schools can easily cope with the proposed cut.

But operators of Internet-based schools say their technology costs are akin to building maintenance costs and that their personnel costs are just as high as a traditional schools.

Tim Daniels, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools, said that as with traditional schools, personnel costs are the single largest expense, but the districts also have technology costs akin to building maintenance.

If Ms. Beyer's bill passes, cyber schools will have to cut back on technology services and some might be forced to close, cyber school operators said.

"This bill will take away valuable resources from children who find that public cyber charter schools are the best educational option for them," said Andrew Oberg, assistant director for the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School based in Midland.

Ms. Beyers said cyber schools are overfunded and have millions of dollars in reserve.

Mr. Daniels said those reserves are necessary to stave off annual deficits caused by public school districts that don't pay their charter-school tuition bills.