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City charter schools file lawsuit against school system over funding

By Erica L. Green
The Baltimore Sun
September 10, 2015

A group of Baltimore city charter schools has filed a lawsuit against the Baltimore city school system, alleging that the district’s funding formula for charters violates state law and threatens their ability to serve thousands of students.

“We were hoping it would not come to this, but we’ve reached a point where we have to stand up for our children and families,” said Danique Dolly, principal of City Neighbors High School, one of the schools that filed a suit Thursday in Circuit Court.

The schools say the district has not met its contractual obligations to charter schools, and a new funding formula announced this week would drastically reduce funding at 26 of the district’s 34 schools, leaving more than one dozen of them struggling to pay for books and teachers.

The schools seek a monetary judgment of at least $75,000.

The schools are among the highest-performing in the city, and many have waiting lists: Afya Public Charter School, three City Neighbors charter schools, Green School of Baltimore, Patterson Park Public Charter School, Southwest Baltimore Charter School and Tunbridge Public Charter School.

Combined, the schools serve 3,600 of the district’s 13,700 charter school students.

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