HARRISBURG, Pa. — Modern education faces many challenges that can place students in difficult situations they're eager to escape.

Unfortunately, students in Pennsylvania public schools have few places to turn to if they are unsatisfied with their home district.

"This is a public education problem," said Brian Hayden, CEO of PA Cyber.

The state commissioned brick-and-mortar charter schools in 1997, followed by cyber charter schools in 2002, giving parents and students an alternative to traditional public schools.

Hayden said every student has a unique reason for choosing charter.

"It could be a bullying incident, it could be anxiety that they have about going to school, it could be the decisions a teacher makes," Hayden said.

"We also have students that come here from families that have busy lives," said Tim Eller, Senior Vice President of Outreach and Government Relations at Commonwealth Charter Academy.

Pennsylvania's cyber charter landscape is now the largest in the country, with at least 61,000 students enrolled in cyber charter schools - That's more than double the next closest state.

Commonwealth Charter Academy is the largest cyber charter school in the state, serving 27,000 students.

Eller said these schools are predominantly publicly funded.

"We're all public employees, our salaries are public," he said. "It's very frustrating that we keep getting tied in that we're a private entity being funded with taxpayer dollars. [That's] the furthest thing from the truth."

"Our students are public school students and our families are public school families," Hayden added.

Charter schools are public schools, but they receive funding a little differently. 

They do receive some federal dollars, but when a student chooses to leave a traditional public school in favor of a charter, a portion of the money the home district would pay to educate that child goes to the charter school instead. 

Just how much the charter school receives may vary and we heard a range of answers when we asked for an average amount.