Public funding for most charter schools exceeds district public schools
Today, a new report from New York City’s Independent Budget Office was released, showing that during the 2009–2010 school year, per pupil public spending for general education students enrolled in NYC co-located charter schools significantly exceeded public spending for students at district public schools. The difference was about $650 per student. About two thirds of charter schools in NYC fall under this category and are given free space in city school buildings.
This analysis, which corrected the estimates made in an IBO report last year, did not take into account the large private subsidies that many charter schools receive.
Nor did it account for the fact that charter schools tend to enroll fewer high needs students than the communities in which they are located, including fewer students from families living below the