On average, the funding gap between charter schools and traditional schools is 22 percent, or $1,800 per pupil. The average charter school ends up with a total funding shortfall of nearly half a million dollars.
Source: Charter School Funding: Inequity’s Next Frontier
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Note: Please be aware that online publishers often change URLs or no longer provide access to articles after 7 days. If any of the below links no longer work, access the publishing newspaper and search the archives for the keywords in the subject matter. Good luck.
Michigan's Charter Schools Outpacing Regular Public Schools
Latest state assessment results show students attending Michigan's charter public schools continue to outpace their peers by posting greater year-over-year gains. Charter children showed greater progress than the state average in 7 of 10 grades/subjects on the 2005 MEAPs. Charter students had a 9 percentage-point climb in 7th-grade writing, compared to a state average increase of 6 points. In 4th-grade reading, charter scores escalated 5 points; the state average increased 3 points. "This is strong achievement for Michigan's charter public schools," said Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies. "This achievement is even more notable because 88 percent of charter students are in urban schools. Charters are reversing the trend of urban failure, increasing knowledge, confidence and belief in the future, child by child."
Source: Michigan Association of Public School Academies (MAPSA), (06/06/2005)
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New Hampshire's First Charter School Seeks Assistance from State
The Franklin Career Academy, New Hampshire’s first charter school, is looking to state education officials for temporary funding and assistance. Local officials have refused to pay the school the $77,000 in state aid it is due, calling it an unfunded mandate and claiming lack of funds. The State Department of Education has turned over the matter to the Attorney General's office. Meanwhile, state education officials are trying to figure out a way to transfer federal funding to be used for the school’s operational expenses until the state adequacy aid issue is resolved. Once the state adequacy aid issue is settled, the federal grant funds would revert to non-operational expenses only. Bill Grimm, chairman of the academy's board of trustees, said he has been working with officials in the state Senate to see if additional funding for charter schools will be included in next year's state budget.
Source: Citizen Online, (06/04/2005)
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Texans Disagree About Whether Charter Schools Receive More or Less Funding than Regular Public Schools
A recent study, commissioned by the Texas Education Agency, finds the state’s charter schools receive slightly more money per student than regular public schools, $8,045 vs. $8,028 in 2003. Charter advocates dispute the results, saying the study omitted facility funding. "We have data that shows significant differences -- up to 30 percent -- in the amount of funding," said Patsy O'Neill of the Texas Charter School Resource Center. Regular public schools generally fund construction with bonds or with state construction aid. Charter schools have to pay for buildings out of their general operating budgets.
Source: Houston Chronicle, (06/03/2005)
Also See
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Many Online Charter School Students Not Taking State Assessments in Ohio
The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) says many students enrolled in online charter schools are not participating in state-mandated achievement tests. The department and the Legislative Office of Education Oversight (LOEO) blame parents and online school operators for the poor participation. The LOEO said that the operators were not providing enough convenient locations where children could take the tests. Nick Wilson, spokesman for the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, the state's largest charter school with over 6,000 students, said that his school's enrollment is about 70 percent low-income, which makes transportation to test sites a problem. Only 18 percent of ECOT's children showed up for the mandatory tests in 2003-04. "We found that number to be very low, and that is why we took steps to involve our whole staff and hired a director of assessment and accountability," he said. Steve Burigana, of the ODE, said the agency plans to start tracking which students miss the tests to resolve the problem.
Source: Akron Beacon Journal, (06/03/2005)
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Texas Education Agency Investigates Education Management Organization
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has begun an investigation of the nonprofit Information Referral Resource Assistance (IRRA) Inc., an organization that runs a six-charter school system in the state. In addition to assessing IRRA’s finances, TEA officials are looking at whether Aguie Peña, president/CEO of IRRA Inc. violated the Open Meetings Act during a May 17 charter school meeting of IRRA’s board of directors. They suspect Peña violated state law by removing three board members from office when it wasn't on the agenda. Results of the audit will be made public this summer. Peña is hopeful the investigation will come up clean. "We act in the best interest of the corporation, the kids we serve and the families we serve," she said.
Source: The Monitor, (06/02/2005)
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MA Districts Claim Charter School Violated Recruitment Policies
Sixteen school districts filed a complaint May 31 with the Massachusetts Department of Education, alleging that a new charter school violated state law when it recruited students from their communities. The complaint alleges that Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School "cherry-picked" communities with lower MCAS scores than the towns around them to gain an advantage in the charter approval process. The complaint states the school's charter misrepresented where the areas from which students would be recruited and those school districts had no notice or opportunity to comment on the charter proposal before it was approved. The school districts claim it could cost them $10,000 per student, although state reimbursements cover some of the loss. Students in Massachusetts can attend charter schools located outside their districts.
Source: Metro West Daily News, (06/01/2005)
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New Report on Charter School Success in Chicago Released
A new report, released June 1, shows how Chicago Public Schools' (CPS) "slow-growth, high-quality" approach to chartering can provide a national model for public school reform. "Chasing the Blues Away: Charter Schools Scale Up in Chicago," published by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), focuses on the oversight of the CPS charter school office, including their proactive authorizing process, transparency, and support. The authors point to several studies showing positive results for Chicago's charter students, including higher percentages of charter school students meeting state standards, improved graduation and attendance rates, and better overall school performance than the schools students would have otherwise attended. "With eight years of charter experience now under its belt, CPS has earned a well-deserved reputation for having one of the country's most thoughtful approaches to authorizing," they wrote.
Source: Progressive Policy Institute, (06/01/2005)
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