A public hearing will determine whether Penn Hills School District will be refunded close to a year-and-a-half's worth of tuition it paid to enroll U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's children in a cyber charter school.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education announced Tuesday that it had sent letters to the district and the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School in Midland, Beaver County, stating that a hearing officer would decide on the case.

Santorum pulled his children from the cyber charter school late last year after school board members complained that the district had spent $100,000 since 2001 in cyber charter tuition for the senator's children.

The school board voted in December to seek a refund for tuition it paid for Santorum's five children enrolled in the online school from the beginning of the 2003-04 school year through November.

State law requires that traditional public schools pay 80 percent of their per-pupil costs as tuition for students registered in their districts and enrolled in online charter schools.

Tuition at the cyber charter school for five of Santorum's children for 2004-05 was to be around $38,000.

Santorum -- who owns a home in Penn Hills, is registered to vote there and has a Pennsylvania car registration and driver's license -- spends most of the year at a $757,000 home he owns in Leesburg, Va., a Washington, D.C., suburb. Santorum has said he returns mainly on the holidays to the $106,000 Stephens Lane home he and his wife bought in 1997.

The school board passed a resolution in January asking the Legislature to clarify the state's definition of residency. Both Shon Worner, a lawyer for the online school, and Penn Hills School District spokesman Matt Cummings declined to comment.

Santorum spokesman Christine Shott said the senator had not received a letter from the Education Department regarding a hearing.

"He will address this issue with the appropriate parties when a formal request is made," Shott said.

Education Department spokeswoman Bethany Yenner said the hearing officer will issue a report after hearing the case. The district and cyber charter school can appeal the decision to the secretary of education, who would make a final determination on any appeals.

Yenner said the hearing time and place are yet to be determined.

By Reid R. Frazier, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Feb 9, 2005