Changing technology and the COVID-19 pandemic caused Pennsylvania students to flock to cyber charter schools, but the decades-old state rules that govern them lack even basic accountability measures.

Now there is a bill making its way through the legislature that would cap the amount of money public school districts send to cyber charters and require the latter be more transparent about their inner workings.

Legislators on both sides of the aisle agree the regulations need to be updated, but they’re a long way from consensus.

Read Spotlight PA's full report: Pa.’s latest attempt to regulate cyber charter schools would lower payments, increase transparency.

THE CONTEXT: Public school districts sent nearly $1 billion to cyber charter schools in the 2020-21 school year, according to Research for Action, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that studies education policy.

The bill that recently passed the state House with 20 Republicans and all Democrats on board would significantly change the funding scheme. Money would still come from a student's home district, but the measure would regulate and differentiate amounts for special education and non-special education students. Public schools have long said they are required to send more money than cyber charters use to educate the former.

House Bill 1422 would also foist new transparency requirements on traditionally opaque cyber charters, including making them subject to the requirements of Pennsylvania's Sunshine Act and making board members subject to state ethics and financial disclosure standards.

But disagreements about the particulars remain, and the lawmaker who chairs the state Senate committee through which the bill must pass, state Sen. David Argall (R., Schuylkill), has not committed to moving it.

"Things happen."

—Lancaster County President Judge David Ashworth on the mistaken jailing of Kirsten O’Connell, 20, under an erroneous arrest warrant

A feather and stone, as spotted by Joe P. in Philadelphia's Wissahickon Park. Have a photo you'd like to share with the whole state? Send it to us by email, use #PAGems on Instagram, or tag us @spotlightpennsylvania.

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MOVIE DATES: Barbie and Oppenheimer hit theaters this weekend. As for the question on everyone's mind: Axios reporter Andrew Solender intuited that U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) is Team Barbie and Bob Casey (D., Pa.) is Team Double Feature. But TribLIVE's Ryan Deto fact-checked the hunch. Gov. Josh Shapiro, meanwhile, is 100% "a Barbie guy."

LOCAL BAN ON FUR: Etna borough in Allegheny County has banned the sale of fur products inside its borders, WPXI reports. A spokesperson for the Humane Society of the United States said Etna is the first municipality in the state and the 14th nationwide to pass such a ban.

FAKE HOLIDAY: Pennsylvania's official Twitter account marked the anniversary of Pennsylvania becoming a state on Thursday, only it was off by months. The likely root of the confusion? An "extremely fake" Pennsylvania holiday we wrote about in our PA Local newsletter in June.

SAG STRIKE: The Hollywood actor's strike came to Philadelphia on Thursday, with Abbott Elementary stars Sheryl Lee Ralph and Lisa Ann Walter joining a protest at LOVE Park. The Inquirer live-tweeted the happening. The show is currently on pause as Ralph says they're "fighting for our art."

NAME CHECK: A Black-owned burger chain in Pittsburgh is shutting down amid a naming dispute with Hollywood heavyweight Universal Studios. Faced with legal threats, Pittsburgh Magazine reports Back to the Foodture decided against rebranding, saying it would be too costly.