Office of the Dean, Teachers College
Ball State University
CHARTER SCHOOL FUNDING: Inequity Persists
May 2010
Major Findings
For the second time, this study finds that:
Charter schools overall were significantly underfunded relative to district schools:
- The average state disparity was 19.2 percent, $2,247 per pupil.
- Differences in student need, including students with disabilities, free or reduced price lunch students, and the grade levels taught, do not justify the disparity.
Funding disparities were even wider in most focus school districts:
- The average disparity was 27.8 percent, $3,727 per pupil.
The chief culprit was charter schools’ lack of access to local and capital funding:
- No state provided charter schools equal access to all funding sources (federal, state, local, and facilities).
- Statewide, more than 85 percent of the disparity between charter and district school funding resulted from differences in access to local revenues.
- Across focus districts, access to local funding streams also drove the funding disparity, but state funding was more unequal than at the state level, representing 30.4 percent of the disparity in focus districts vs. 8.9 percent of the disparity statewide.
http://www.bsu.edu/teachers/media/pdf/char... ******
This comparative study of school funding in charter schools and traditional public schools in 16 states and the District of Columbia finds that charters are significantly under- funded relative to district schools. The report, based on 2002-03 revenues, finds that, on average, the funding gap is 22 percent, or $1,800 per pupil. Researchers found that discrepancies are larger in most big urban school districts. In urban areas the gap widens to $2,200 per pupil. In cities like San Diego and Atlanta, charters receive 40 percent less than traditional public schools. The inequity is most severe in South Carolina, California, Ohio, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Missouri. The study finds that the primary driver of the district-charter gaps is charter schools' lack of access to local and capital funding. It includes detailed state-by-state and district financial and policy information, as well as recommendations for closing the funding gap.
http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/Charter%20... ********
Funding for Charter Schools
As public schools, charter schools are funded through a combination of federal, state and local tax dollars. Different than non-charter public schools, though, charters have the freedom to determine how to spend their funds – in exchange for being held accountable for their academic, fiscal and operational results.
There is wide variation from state to state, though, in how the funding of charter schools actually works. Some of the most serious funding problems involve restrictions on the use of funding by charter schools, delays in payments to charter schools and forcing charter schools to pay for their facilities out of their operational budget.
What is consistent across the country – and most problematic – is that public charter schools receive significantly lower funding than non-charter public schools. A recent analysis of 24 states and the District of Columbia, covering 93 percent of the nation’s public charter school population, shows an average per-pupil funding gap of 19.2 percent or $2,247, when compared to traditional public schools in the same state during the 2006-2007 school year. For a typical 250-student charter school, the funding gap amounts to a nearly $562,000 shortfall every year. The gap was even larger – 27.8 percent – in “focus districts,” 40 cities where almost half of all charter schools in the study are located.
http://www.publiccharters.org/node/44 
