• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Charters Get Less Public Funding ; Forum Looks At Financing Schools

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 October 2005, 12:01 CDT

By OLIVIER UYTTEBROUCK Journal Staff Writer

A major challenge faced by New Mexico's charter schools is a lack of public funding for building improvements, the leader of a state coalition said Monday.

Public school districts rarely include charter schools in capital improvement bond issues, said Lisa Grover, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition for Charter Schools.

As a result, the state's 52 charter schools receive less public money per pupil on average than non-charter public schools, she said.

"Charter school students are public school students, and they deserve equal access to funding," Grover said.

Grover made the comments at a forum in Albuquerque on Monday. It was sponsored by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and is one of four regional forums planned around the country.

Most charter schools are ineligible to receive state money for building improvements because they are housed in privately owned buildings, Grover said. About three-quarters of the charters lease space from private owners, she estimated.

The anti-donation clause in the New Mexico Constitution forbids the state from funding improvements to privately owned buildings.

Grover cited a recent study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which estimated that New Mexico charter schools received $8,849 in per-pupil public funding for academic year 2002-03, compared with $9,020 for non-charter public schools.

Rep. Rick Miera, D-Albuquerque, said help is on the way thanks to a 2004 law requiring that all charter schools be housed in public buildings by 2010.

State law also requires school districts to include charters in their five-year master plans, Miera said.

The law should force districts to find public buildings for charter schools, he said.

Nelson Smith, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said charters nationally receive less public money per pupil than non-charter public schools.

The Fordham study also found that charter schools nationally receive 22 percent less in per-pupil funding than other public schools, he said.

"It puts our schools at a disadvantage," Smith said. "We're going to be making a concerted effort state-by-state to rectify this."

Source: Albuquerque Journal

More News in this Category