Los Angeles teachers went on strike recently, partly in protest of growing charter school enrollment. But a new study out of the University of Arkansas highlights an unfairness in education budgets that disadvantages charters.
The research finds that charter schools nationwide receive nearly $6,000 less per student than traditional public schools. Worse, this glaring inequity increased over the last decade.
The new report, titled “Charter School Funding: (More) Inequity in the City,” analyzed all public school revenue for the 2015-2016 school year in 14 cities with high concentrations of charter schools. This includes federal, state, local, and nonpublic dollars. Public charter school students in these cities received 27 percent less in revenues than their traditional public school peers.
The research found that the funding inequity is most acute in Camden, N.J., where it is $14,671 per student, and Washington, D.C., where it equals $10,258 per student — and note that in D.C., charter students account for nearly 50 percent of the public school population.
The average underfunding of charter students in all 14 jurisdictions amounted to $5,928 for each student. The 36 percent and 28 percent underfunding found in Camden and D.C., respectively, are the largest in cash terms, but not as a share of all revenue — that dubious distinction belongs to such jurisdictions as Atlanta, where the deficit is 49 percent; Little Rock, Ark., where it is 39 percent; and in Oakland, Calif., and Indianapolis, where it is 37 percent in the red.
What is new about the University of Arkansas study is that it counts all monies received by charter schools and their district-run equivalents — from federal, state, and local governments, plus philanthropic foundations, parents, and tax dollar-funded services such as transportation and facilities.
And what is particularly unfair about this inequitable funding is that charters are increasingly the choice of families where they are available, especially in areas like Camden and Washington, where the traditional public school systems fell into the worst disrepair. Troubled urban education systems have sparked charter enrollment. In New Orleans, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., for example, the charter share of public education is 92, 53, and 48 percent, respectively. Often, this exercise of choice has led to school districts improving their traditional public school systems.
Nationally, 3.2 million children — 6 percent of all public school students — attend charter schools, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Taxpayer-funded and tuition-free, charters develop their educational programs independently of school districts, while being held accountable for student performance. This autonomy enables these unique public schools to adopt approaches that boost student outcomes. Charters bring school choice to low-income families, whereas it was previously reserved only to those with the means to afford private school or to relocate to a higher-performing public school district.
Before charters were introduced in Washington, D.C., in the mid-1990s, half the students dropped out before graduating. Public charter schools dramatically increased high-school graduation rates — by 50 percent — and these gains were shared across the city. The graduation rate for African-American charter students in D.C. is almost identical to the citywide average for all charter students. And charter students in the city’s two most underserved wards are twice as likely to meet citywide benchmarks for college-and-career readiness as their traditional public school counterparts.
Sadly, such contributions to public education are underappreciated by the city government, which for school facilities provides $1 in per-pupil funding for every $3 that traditional public schools get. The city also continues to sell surplus traditional public school buildings to private developers while charters struggle to acquire suitable school premises.
This inequity continues, despite the fact that D.C. charters educate a higher share of economically disadvantaged and minority students than the traditional public school system — with stronger results. The unfairness also runs contrary to D.C. law, which requires equal city funding for all public school students.
Inequitable funding that discriminates against public charter school students needs to be addressed in all 14 of the urban areas studied. Changes also are overdue at the federal level. The Charter Schools Program helps charters access space and overcome other start-up hurdles. But funding amounts to less than one percent of the U.S. Department of Education’s budget, which does not reflect the extent of charter school enrollment — or demand — today. Federal funds could instead be distributed to reflect the charter school student share, and federal education grants could encourage this best practice at state and local level.
America’s public charter schools have significantly enhanced public education quality, especially for the nation’s most disadvantaged students, yet are consistently shortchanged. Fair funding for charters and their students is long overdue.
Dr. Ramona Edelin is executive director of the D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools.
