Group Seeks to Challenge Charter School Funding (MA)
December 30, 2010
A group of Amherst-area officials and residents have launched an effort to ask the state to reconsider the manner in which charter schools are funded, in an attempt to limit the money towns lose when student choose to attend those institutions.
The organizers of the campaign intend to write a warrant article that would be considered by the Town Meetings in Amherst, Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury, requesting that the state rework the funding formula for charter schools, which are independent public schools t hat operate under five-year agreements granted by the state’s Board of Education.
"My goal is to start a public conversation about charter schools," said Richard Seelig, a Pelham resident, who organized a public meeting last month with Leverett Finance Committee member Nancy Grossman to discuss the subject. "I am ambivalent about creating a separate public school system versus the traditional public school system." (See related column Page A4.)
Those from smaller towns have expressed particular concern about the charters’ financial impact. For each resident attending a charter school, a town must pay to that school a portion of the education aid, known as Chapter 70 money, the town receives from the state.
"I think there is a place for various kinds of innovation around school programs, but I don’t think it should come at the expense of public schools," said Grossman. "By taking large sums of money out of the towns to pay for charter schools, it creates a certain level of animosity."
In return for paying a portion of its Chapter 70 money to a charter school, the sending district receives some reimbursement from the state. That reimbursement decreases over time, however. Thus a sending district receives a reimbursement of 100 percent in a student’s first year at a charter school and receives a 25-percent reimbursement in each of the following five years, according to the state Department of Education.
Charter school advocates argue that it is a fair formula because the sending district no longer has to pay the cost of educating the child attending a charter school. Opponents, like Grossman and Seelig, say that the funding formula deprives traditional public schools of money and pits them against ch arter schools.
Last year Leverett Elementary School sent three children to charter schools, costing the town $48,075 in Chapter 70 money, according to the Department of Education. However, the town received $30,919 in reimbursement funds from the state. Pelham Elementary School had two students attend charter schools last year. The total cost in Chapter 70 funds was $47,134, but the town was reimbursed for all of that sum by the state. Shutesbury elementary saw two students attend charters at a cost of $28,710, but was reimbursed for a 100 percent of that by the state.
Charter schools were more costly to Amherst and the regional school system, which covers the four towns at the middle and high school level, according to the Department of Education. Amherst elementary schools had 35 students attend charters last year, costing a total of $471,170. Amherst received a reimbursement of $310,233. The Amherst Regional Middle and High School had 67 students attend charters at a total cost of $912,833. The district received a reimbursement of $342,239.
It is figures like those that worry Grossman and Seelig.
"If the Legislature wants to try this experiment they should pay for it," Grossman said. "It should come out of a line item in the budget."
The group is currently working with the Massachusetts Association of School Committees and Citizens for Public Schools, an advocacy group, to develop the language for a warrant article that could be submitted to Town Meetings.
"We’re looking to start a grass-roots movement statewide, starting where we live," Seelig said.