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.
Study Shows KIPP Students in Baltimore Leading in Math and Reading
One hundred percent of students at KIPP Ujima Village Academy, a small charter school serving disadvantaged children in Northwest Baltimore, passed Maryland's eighth-grade math test, compared with 19 percent in a control group. Johns Hopkins University education researchers compared the achievement and economic status of KIPP students in four grades with a group of similar students at the four elementary schools that KIPP students transferred from. They found that the school turned chronic low-performers into some of the city's highest scorers on state assessments, while their peers in neighboring schools continued to lag behind. Students who spent just one or two years at KIPP and then left for other schools continued to do better than the students who had not been to KIPP at all.
Source: Baltimore Sun, (06/24/2007)
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New State Commission to Study North Carolina's Charter Schools
Although the cap on charter schools in North Carolina will not be acted on during this legislative session, it will be one of the key topics studied by the newly created Blue Ribbon Charter School Commission. The group, chaired by Michael Fedewa, Superintendent of Schools for the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, will meet over the course of six months to review the state of charter schools in North Carolina. Members are charged with developing recommendations for the state legislature and board of education. "The timing is right," said Fedewa. "We're at the cap, the discussion is going on whether or not it's a good thing to have more charter schools, and I think the state Board wants to get out in front of this. We're going to be looking at current legislation and possibly future legislation that could be used, changed, adjusted or implemented that could make charter schools stronger."
Source: News 14 Carolina, (06/23/2007)
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Arizona Charter Schools Sue State Over Instruction Schedule Rules
A lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court on behalf of several charter schools charges that Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and the state Board of Education lack the legal authority to force charter schools to align their teaching schedule with the ones imposed on other public schools. Attorney Clint Bolick of the Goldwater Institute, who filed the lawsuit for the schools, said charter schools should be allowed to keep their schedules unimpeded by Horne and the state Board of Education. "When the Legislature created charter schools, they decided that outcome standards were more important than inputs, that diversity was a higher value than homogeneity," he said.
Source: Arizona Daily Star, (06/23/2007)
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State Funds Proposed to Help NH Charter Schools Stay Open
Three New Hampshire charter schools, which had faced the possibility of closing because they had depleted their federal start-up money, will likely stay open for the upcoming school year thanks to $800,000 proposed to be added to the state budget. New Hampshire's charter schools have always relied on three-year federal start-up grants to fill the gap between the meager per-pupil aid received from the state and the real costs of educating students. Charter advocates want more permanent support from the state. Rep. Ken Weyler, who helped secure the $800,000, said lawmakers and charter supporters will have to work together to come up with a more reliable way to fund charter schools. Both the full House and Senate still need to vote on the proposal.
Source: Concord Monitor, (06/22/2007)
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Facility Challenges Likely to Force Closure of KIPP School in Maryland
Unable to find a suitable facility, KIPP Harbor Academy, a successful Maryland charter school, will likely be forced to close. Over the past two years, school leaders had looked at more than 25 different locations, none of which were workable solutions. The school had operated in space provided by Sojourner-Douglass College, which needed its building back. The school sought to lease space in the Annapolis Middle School, which remains two-thirds vacant, but district officials said the space was reserved to accommodate students displaced during future district construction projects. Officials of KIPP, which operates 51 other charters across the country, said it is the first time they have been forced to close because they were unable to secure a space to lease. "In other communities, we're seeing people clamoring for KIPP, but here, we looked at several locations, and some made it clear we're not welcome," said Steve Mancini, a KIPP spokesman.
Source: Washington Post (free registration required), (06/21/2007)
Also See
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Minneapolis School Board May Reverse Policy of Not Leasing Facilities to Charters
The Minneapolis school board appears to be open to ending the district's longstanding policy of not renting surplus classrooms to charter schools. Initially, district officials are asking permission to lease empty classroom space to one charter school, Oh Day Aki. Five of seven board members said they support or are open to such a lease. The district will sponsor four charter schools next school year, including Oh Day Aki, and may add another in 2008. Board chair Pam Costain said the district needs to learn from the innovations of charters.
Source: Star Tribune, (06/19/2007)
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D.C. Public Charter School Board Approves Six Applications for New Charter Schools
The D.C. Public Charter School Board voted last week to grant conditional approval to six of 13 applicants who had sought permission to open charter schools in the fall of 2008. All the schools will have to meet a range of academic and other conditions before opening.
Source: Washington Post (free registration required), (06/19/2007)
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