Many charter schools funded better than public schools, website shows
The Ohio Charter School Accountability Project, a joint venture of the Ohio Education Association teachers’ union and Innovation Ohio, released figures of the study on the websiteknowyourcharter.com. It provides the number of students enrolled in charter schools in every district in Ohio, as well as the grades associated with those charter schools and funding they receive.
In addition to providing insight into the funds provided to charter schools, the figures also show that many of the charter schools received lower grades than their traditional public school counterparts.
According to information provided by Innovation Ohio, the average school district last year received $4,149 per pupil, which is $1,596 less than the $5,745 base amount paid to charter schools. Local school districts have to make up that $1,596 state funding shortfall through local revenue or reductions.
The state spends more than $900 million on the 122,019 students enrolled full-time in charter schools, with 511 of 613 public school districts receiving less money per pupil than charter schools do, according to information provided by the Lorain County Educational Services Center.
In Lorain County, 3,800 students are enrolled in charter schools and more than $29 million is spent on those students, with more than $4.2 million coming from local funds. Six of the county’s 14 districts, Avon, Avon Lake, Clearview, Columbia, North Ridgeville and Sheffield, pay more in local dollars to charters than is deducted from the state foundation on a per pupil funding basis.
Two local educators, Greg Ring and Jay Arbaugh, traveled to Columbus on Tuesday to talk about charter school funding at Innovation Ohio headquarters.
“Charter schools really divert local tax dollars away from local districts,” Arbaugh, superintendent of Keystone Schools, said during a phone interview after the meeting. “That’s certainly not the intent of the people who are paying the local taxes.”
Ring, superintendent of the Lorain County Educational Services Center, said a county survey regarding charter schools was conducted earlier this year and 62 percent of respondents said they were opposed to local tax dollars leaving their districts to support for-profit and other charter schools.
“We know there are local tax dollars leaving to follow students into their charter schools,” Ring said. “Our survey results showed people were resoundingly against that, because sometimes those dollars are going to for-profit institutions which generally have lower ratings.”
Ring said local school boards and administrations have no control over the situation.
“Most people don’t understand this and when they realize what’s happening, they have a problem with it,” Ring said. “I think people vote on local levies expecting that the money will stay in our school systems.”
Arbaugh, who said he is not opposed to parents having a choice of where they send their children to school, said the funding issue needs to be addressed, especially since local governments are facing more revenue challenges than they ever have.
“I’m all for choice and competition,” Arbaugh said. “But when students in my district are going to charter schools that have an average grade of a D or less, and local tax dollars are being funneled to those Many charter schools funded better than public schools, website shows - Chronicle-Telegram:
