Report Says State Funding Hurts Charter Schools
Posted on: Friday, 26 August 2005, 09:00 CDT
Charter schools in Buffalo spend nearly $3,000 less per pupil than traditional city schools and "are being set up to fail" by the state's funding formula, said a report released today by a pro- charter school think tank.
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, headquartered in Washington, D.C., said district schools in Buffalo spend $13,197 per pupil, compared with $10,211 for Buffalo charter schools. That pattern is similar in other states and elsewhere in New York, the study said.
"Almost everywhere in America, including New York, these new- model public schools (charter schools) are sorely underfunded compared with district-run schools," Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the Fordham Foundation, said in a written release.
Those figures "should provoke a major fiscal equity debate -- and perhaps litigation -- across the land," he said.
The primary cause of the funding gap is that charter schools do not receive state funds to construct and renovate buildings.
Gary Crosby, chief financial officer for the Buffalo Public Schools, acknowledged that charter schools "do have a legitimate complaint about under-funding," but said traditional public schools suffer greatly under the state's charter school funding law.
"We are both being set up for failure," Crosby said.
He said the school system made $38.5 million in transfer payments to charter schools last year, and was able to recoup only a small portion of those costs through corresponding cuts in staff. Charter school payments are expected to be $50 million this school year.
Crosby also said the $3,000-per-pupil spending gap is misleading because the city school district pays some of the transportation, special education and textbook costs of charter schools.
Peter Murphy and Bill Phillips, representatives of the New York Charter Schools Association, said Buffalo's traditional schools should be able to better offset the $50 million in charter school payments by consolidating classes, cutting staff or closing buildings.
e-mail: psimon@buffnews.com
Source: Buffalo News
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