Charter schools remain a bad investment for students and taxpayers
An Associated Press study of Department of Education records published last week showed that taxpayers have funded these privately-run, but publicly-funded schools to the tune of $760 million since 2000.
Of that, $70 million has been spent on charter schools that have gone out of business — in most cases, a total loss.
What the study did not do was speculate on future spending, which has risen dramatically over the past five years. Taxpayers are now actually funding capital building projects for charter schools in addition to funding expenses ranging from rents and leases to buses, books, salaries and insurance policies.
The whole charter idea is controversial and, opponents say, illegal. One of the basic arguments is that we are, in come cases, funding private religious schools with public money — a clear example bending the core belief of the separation of church and state. Judges, as recently as last week, have disagreed and upheld the funding of charter schools.
Let’s forget for a moment the taxpayer losses from charter schools that have shut their doors, although that’s only a part of the arguments against the lack of accountability mandated for these private schools.
Other arguments against charter schools are myriad.
The strongest is that they take money directly away from the public school system which, as we’ve seen locally, is already being under-funded, especially in terms of capital improvement dollars. We just passed a tax increase to attempt to play catchup. So if our school infrastructure is lagging behind — and it is — does it make financial sense to build parallel school infrastructure or invest in existing infrastructure?
Many charter schools are for-profit rather than non-profit. A recent study in Maryland showed that 85 percent of its charter schools are for-profit and they spend an average of 50 cents on the dollar for instruction, while public schools spent 60 cents. Would you, as a taxpayer, rather put the extra money (millions annually) in corporate profits or teacher salaries?
Charter schools have appointed boards, if at all, and accountable to whom? Most public Charter schools remain a bad investment for students and taxpayers | StAugustine.com:
