Aug. 21, 2026
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
Lehigh Valley charter schools pay well, at least for the people at the top.
When the Allentown School District gave Superintendent Dr. Carol D. Birks a contract in 2023 at $250,000 plus potential annual raises, there was some grumbling. Yet compared to charters, at least on a per-student basis, that deal looks like a bargain.
She oversees 25 schools and about 16,700 students at the fourth-biggest public district in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia is No. 1). Birks’ deal works out to about $17 or so per student. That metric doesn’t tell all and Birks has a staff of administrators, but it lends some perspective on costs.
Next, a look at the charters. They are privately run but receive public funds. They have less bureaucracy but unlike public districts, they don’t have to set millage rates, face the taxpayers and collect property taxes.
Picture, if you will, Robert Clemente Charter School in Allentown, which serves about 620 students, according to its website. From the school’s Form 990, a tax return for non-profit operations, Chief Executive Alyssa Mace took in total compensation of $203,176 in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025. That’s about $330 per student. Another administrator made $155,035.
Over to Executive Education Academy Charter School in east Allentown: For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, Chief Executive Robert Lysek’s total compensation was $190,845. Two other officers were paid more than $100,000. The school serves more than 1,500 students from kindergarten through 12th grade, its website says. Here’s a link to its Form 990, courtesy of ProPublica.
Lysek has an interesting background, serving as a police officer before going into education, according to the school’s website. At his 2025 salary, he’s paid about $125 or so per student.
Over at the Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School in Bethlehem, Chief Executive Susan Mauser made a total of $239,046 in the last fiscal year. It’s all public information, right here.
The school has close to 2,000 students, according to its website, so Mauser’s pay works out to about $120 per student.
This issue is complex, but are these $200,000 jobs?
The charter-school debate has been kicking around for years. One argument for charters is “the money goes with the kid.”
The money, however, doesn’t come from the kid. It comes from taxpayers.
Then there is the “fragmentation” issue. Having more schools can lead to higher expenses even if the total student body remains the same.
Schools tend to have high fixed costs so if a public school loses 5% of its students to a private school, costs don’t necessarily decline. The building still has to be heated, administrators don’t take pay cuts and interest has to be paid.
Also, each school has to have a bureaucracy, creating the potential for more money going to administration and less to education if new schools open.
On the other side of the argument, many people are dissatisfied with the performance of public schools. Their taxes rise and despite all the PowerPoint presentations, they don’t see improvement.
Meanwhile the cost of everything is going up and people are getting tired of it.
Taxpayers are not happy, and with the federal government setting new spending records and Pennsylvania balancing its books with gimmicks, don’t expect help from above as districts grapple with paying their own bills while sending money to the charters.
A fiscal reckoning is coming, the only question is … when?
The president of the USA makes $400,000 a year and based upon 342 million people he makes $.0012 cents per person. Bottom line is that this article should focus what charter schools create out of those dollars. Assuming charter schools paid $17 per student or even $50 per student, no qualified person would take the job of being the administrator.
$17 is no bargain if 60% of the kids can’t do basic 3rd-4th grade math and reading upon graduation.
LikeLike
I sent a kid to private school. Not everybody can afford to do that, but we chose to.
I also know many families who had good experiences with the Bethlehem public schools.
Our current system of public, charter and private schools is too expensive for the results we get.
Is there a solution?
LikeLike
Thank you for focusing on these costs. As an ASD taxpayer I do not mind paying taxes for good puclic schools, but absolutely detest that many of my tax dollars are paying for charter schools with no demostrable better outcomes.
For a long time I have advocated for school district consolidation, having 500 school districts in PA is just absurd in terms of overhead expenses that do nothing for better education of students.
LikeLike