HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner today called for a moratorium on new charter and cyber-charter schools, pending an overhaul of a funding system he said has resulted in serious inequities in what taxpayers pay to finance these public school alternatives.

At a news conference, Wagner released a "special report" based on a review of 18 charter schools and information from the state Department of Education.

He said the root of the problem is a state law that requires individual school districts to pay a charter school tuition rate per pupil based on a district's own costs. That results in different districts paying different rates to the same charter school.

"It's got to be fixed, and it's got to be fixed as soon as possible," Wagner said.

The Hazleton Area School District, for example, paid about $6,500 to send a student to a charter school in 2008-09, while the Jenkintown School District in Montgomery County paid more than $16,000 per student. For special education students, the rates are much higher and the disparity much larger, according to Wagner's office.