Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Charter Schools Are… [Public? Private? Neither? Both?] « School Finance 101

Charter Schools Are… [Public? Private? Neither? Both?] « School Finance 101:


Charter Schools Are… [Public? Private? Neither? Both?]

…Directly Publicly Subsidized, Limited Public Access, Publicly or Privately Authorized, Publicly or Privately Governed, Managed and Operated Schools
Let’s break it down:
Directly publicly subsidized
Charter schools are directly subsidized by a combination of (primarily) state and local tax dollars (state dependent) transferred to charter schools on the basis of their enrollments.
This funding is analogous to a directly subsidized voucher program that would transfer tax dollars to private schools on the basis of students signing up for the voucher program.
This funding is also analogous to the state aid that is delivered on a pupil enrollment basis to local public school districts, but the funding is different from local tax dollars that are raised based on the values of taxable properties and are not dependent on pupil enrollments.
Note that traditional public schools or charter schools may receive a variety of non-government (non-taxpayer