February 24, 2010

As you may have heard, the New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO) released a report today comparing district school per-pupil funding with charter school per-pupil funding. The report found that charter schools that do not have access to Department of Education classroom space receive $3,017 less per pupil than district schools. The report also found that charter schools that share space with district schools in DOE buildings still receive $305 less per pupil. 

This report was requested by a charter school opponent and is written with an anti-charter slant. But the numbers don't lie, and the report confirms what the charter schools community has long known: charter schools students get less funding than district students, a disparity that is patently unfair. When you add it up, the gap between district schools and charters isn't even close, particularly for charters that do not share public space.  Averaged across all charter schools, the gap (using IBO numbers) is roughly $2,000.

The New York City Charter School Center welcomes this report, which confirms the charter funding disparity and will finally put to rest opponents' baseless claims that charter schools actually receive more. Nevertheless, the report still severely understates the gap, for several reasons:

• Since the study's data were collected, charter schools' per-pupil funding has been frozen even as district spending continues to rise and by substantial amounts.
• The study also does not make comparisons at the neighborhood level; because the City has rightly directed more resources to district schools in high needs neighborhoods, the gap for charter schools in those same neighborhoods is much wider-showing that charter schools do in fact do more for less.
• The IBO attributes the full debt service load to charter schools in DoE space, however charter schools presently do not own that space and, as the IBO notes, are there as a matter of policy. Either this amount should be discounted or charters should get equal legal rights to DoE buildings.
• The IBO calculates start up costs as if they were ongoing and reoccurring expenses, which, of course, they are not.

  We have not had time to calculate the dollar value of these factors, though we estimate that the funding disparity for a charter school in a high-needs neighborhood (where the vast majority of charter schools are located) is actually more than $2,000 this year (and possibly much more) even when the charter school is in a district building. For charter schools in private space the disparity is far greater still.   

  In the wake of this report, it is our sincere hope that advocacy groups that purport to support a high quality public education for all students, and which believe that equality in funding is a non-negotiable part of this struggle, will join with us to press for equal charter school funding.  

  The debate over whether charter schools receive less funding is over, and it's not even close. Now it's time for everyone to stand up for simple fairness. 
  

New York City Charter School Center
111 Broadway, Suite 604, New York, NY 10006
tel: 212.437.8300 | fax: 212.227.2763
info@nycCharterSchools.org
www.nycCharterSchools.org