By: William Sims, President and CEO, Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools
Columbus, Ohio
Currently a public charter-school student receives about $3,000 less in state funding than a district public-school student. On average, that’s approximately one-third less. Charter schools receive no support from local property taxes or for facilities. District schools have had access to more than $4 billion in facilities funding.
Now the governor wants to take another $1,400 to $1,500 out of that charter-school student’s backpack, leaving potentially half of what a district public-school student receives. I’d like to know how any charter school can survive with that kind of disparity and, by the way, while aspiring to academic excellence and responsible fiscal management.
Why should a public charter-school student be worth half of what a district public-school student is worth?
There is a constitutional imperative to provide equal access to a system of common schools throughout the state of Ohio. By any standard this education plan for charter schools is sadly, separate and unequal. One can only conclude that the governor has been planning for two years now to suffocate charter schools.
It’s surreal for the governor’s office to respond to this funding disparity by saying they have discovered some sort of “evidenced-based … unique business model” that magically makes this all work. Show me the model, and if it really does work, and I’ll show you hundreds of district schools that can easily afford 20 percent cuts in their “business models.”
There are more than 80,000 charter-school students in Ohio. If the governor’s plan succeeds in the demise of charter schools in Ohio, it will end school choice for more students than the combined enrollment of the Dayton and Cleveland school districts. Ironically, the state would then have to re-absorb all those students at the higher district costs for educating those kids.
“Separate but equal” was a quietly kept education model for decades in America before morality overcame prejudice. This kind of “separate and unequal” prejudice against charter schools cannot be allowed to prevail.
February 18, 2009 at 2:58 pm |
This is a sad reality of the fact that the Governor and his party are beholden to the Teacher Unions that want the status quo upheld of public schools receiving their funding at current or increased levels whether their schools show succesfful results or not. Competition breeeds jealousy and when charter schools begin outperforming some public schools, the result is to go after those groups behind the successful charter programs. This same party that wants to stifle school choice here in Ohio is also the same group that wants to bail out the auto industry over and over again without seeing results that these companies have an economically viable plan to recover nor produce products that Americans want to purchase when compared to other models and brands! But ~~ they have a mandate and their constituencies voted for CHANGE! It will get worse before it gets better.