Now that U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum has announced he is withdrawing his children from a cyber school, a school board member in Penn Hills, which has been picking up the tab, wants him to pay the district back.

Erin Vecchio, a school board member and chairman of the Penn Hills Democratic Party, said last night she expects the Republican senator to pay back the money used to educate five of his six children. Penn Hills pays the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, a computer-based school in Midland that allows students to work from home, $38,000 a year to educate Santorum's children. The children have been enrolled in the cyber school the past four years. Until this school year, the school was known as the Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School.

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Santorum announced last night that he and his wife, Karen, would withdraw their children from the cyber school and home school them, as they did before enrolling in the charter school.

"The school district has just informed us that, after reviewing our situation, only children who live in a community on a full-time basis are eligible to be educated in a public charter school program," Santorum said.

The Santorums own a house in Penn Hills but spend most of their time at a house in Leesburg, Va., outside Washington, D.C.

Santorum's statement did not address whether he would pay back the tuition to Penn Hills.

"He owes that to the Penn Hills residents," said Vecchio, who lives near the house the Santorums own in Penn Hills. "He knows he doesn't live in Penn Hills."

The Penn Hills school solicitor, Alfred Maiello, and Superintendent Tricia Gennari declined comment on the situation last night.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.