Dive Brief:
- Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is poised to sign new legislation mandating that public and charter schools equally share the revenue from voter-approved tax hikes, with supporters saying it’s the first bill in the nation to do so, according to the Denver Post.
- Charter schools in Colorado have seen an explosion of growth in enrollment, with 30% more students enrolled since 2013, and charter students in the state earn higher scores on state exams than in public schools. In all, about $34 million of tax revenue is not being shared annually between charter and public schools.
- Critics argue charter schools are often exempt from certain regulation, including the release of certain financial information. The new bill would mandate that charter schools would have to post some of their tax documents online and also limit financial waivers.
Dive Insight:
Charter school funding remains a divisive topic amongst educators and advocates, with supporters arguing that it is unfair that charter students are not properly funded while critics of charters say the schools drain money from the coffers of public school districts. This study, conducted by the School Choice Demonstration Project at the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, found that charter school funding inequity is a common problem throughout the country. The study found that Camden, NJ, had the most underfunded charter schools in the nation, and it also found that Denver’s charter school funding equity gap had grown from 2003 to 2014 (the gap had shrunk in some cities, including Atlanta, Houston and Boston).
The study argues that the primary cause of public charter school funding inequity is at the local level, with much of it generated through property taxes. This can be a difficult issue to thread, as charter schools will often open in areas that have typically suffered from a lack of necessary investment on the part of the cities, with the schools often underfunded and suffering from a low tax base. There is a growing train of thought that those who are most opposed to charter schools are white, middle class women, however, whose children would not have been impacted by the historically inequitable funding which birthed the need for charters, but whose children would likely be in public schools which may feel threatened by a reallocation of funds.