Payments to charter schools a burden, Woodland Hills says
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The Woodland Hills school board, which pays more than $10 million a year to nearby charter schools, is one of at least two local boards joining in an effort to change the way charter schools are funded.
School districts have long complained that they lose money when a student chooses to attend a charter school. Public schools, out of the subsidies they receive from the state, must pay the tuition for those students.
District officials argue that although they are required to pay tuition to charter schools, the staff needed to educate the remaining students stays the same, creating a major financial burden.
"When you send the money out of the public school system, you've taken away from the subsidies that are going to the general public," Woodland Hills school board President Marilyn Messina said.
During the 2010-11 school year, Woodland Hills received a reimbursement of a little more than $1.8 million from the state for its tuition payments.
This school year, the district estimates it will pay more than $12 million to charter schools but won't receive money from the state because of education funding cuts. "This time we get no support," Ms. Messina said. "There's no added supplement from the state."
The Woodland Hills school board last week voted to urge legislators to reform the way charter schools are funded and hold the schools accountable for the academic performance of the students.
"A lot of school directors feel, 'Where's the monitoring?' It's not that we're against choice, we just wonder how this money is being spent," Ms. Messina said.
The resolution was authored by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association in May. In addition to Woodland Hills, the East Allegheny school board passed its version of the resolution this month.
Woodland Hills' coffers have long suffered as a result of the number of students leaving the district to attend charter schools. As the number increases, state aid has steadily decreased until it was ultimately eliminated this year.
According to the resolution, Pennsylvania school districts' expenditures for students attending charter schools has increased by $332.5 million, or 112.6 percent, between the 2003-04 school year and the 2007-08 school year. In the 2010-11 school year, Pennsylvania school districts paid $795 million to charter schools.
East Allegheny estimated in the resolution that it will pay more than $1.2 million to charter schools this year.
"Our district is more than capable [of providing] a quality education to students ... and we encourage attendance to public schools" versus charter schools, said Toni Valicenti, East Allegheny's director of fiscal affairs.
Ms. Messina questioned the formulas for determining funding for charter schools. She noted that Woodland Hills pays charter schools $20,000 per special-needs child, but it doesn't distinguish between serious disabilities and mild impairments.
"It's under one umbrella, and it's not identified," she said.
"Choice is not the issue. It's how the money goes [to charter schools]," she said. "If you want choice, great, but don't take from our pot."
First Published January 26, 2012 12:00 am
