Advocates say Pennsylvania can do more for charter schools
By Evan Grossman
Watchdog.org
January 30th, 2015
Pennsylvania could be a lot friendlier to public charter schools.
That’s the message delivered by a pair of independent reports that call for an equitable funding formula and more hospitable policies for the state’s charter schools.
The NAPCS placed Pennsylvania 25th out of 43 states in its sixth annual charter law report, while a Pew studyzeroed in on Pennsylvania’s lack of a statewide funding formula as a prime reason why some charter schools receive a fraction of the funding that traditional district schools get. Pennsylvania was one of the first states to establish a charter law in 1997, but Ziebarth said the law is now “out-dated.”“They got out of the gate strong, but it’s beginning to stagnate there,” said Todd Ziebarth, senior vice president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, which published its ranking of the nation’s charter laws this month. “A number of states have updated their laws. Pennsylvania has not.”
“Pennsylvania is really not up to par with some other states that have more widespread choice and access for students to get into better schools,” said Kara Kerwin, president of the Center for Education Reform.
NAPCS’s report shows the need for additional policy improvements across the nation, particularly in areas of funding. This evaluation is indicative of Pennsylvania’s greatest area of concern, too, as it is one of only three states without a funding formula for financing its schools.
State lawmakers have worked to rewrite Pennsylvania’s charter school law over the past few years, but have been unable to reach consensus. The funding formula and the creation of state-level authorizer for new charter schools have been the main sticking points.
NAPCS measures states’ charter climate according to 20 categories, from caps on the number of schools permitted to who can authorize them to transparency in the approval and denial process. Pennsylvania fell from No. 24 to 25 out of 43 states with charter laws this year because of its performance in the Equitable Operational Funding and Equal Access to All State and Federal Categorical Funding category.
In all, NAPCS scored the health of Pennsylvania’s charter school movement very high with 23 of a possible 26 points. However, the report recommends Pennsylvania shore up several areas, including prohibiting district-mandated restrictions on growth, ensuring authorizer accountability, providing authorizer funding, allowing multi-school charter contracts or multi-contract governing boards, and ensuring equitable access to capital funding and facilities.
For the fifth time in six years, Minnesota was named the No. 1 state for charter laws, while Maryland was last for the second straight year.
“More states need to enact legislation that reduces the funding gap between charter schools and traditional schools, provides charter schools with the flexibility to innovate and holds charter schools accountable for student achievement,” NAPCS President and CEO Nina Rees said.
Until 2011, the state provided school districts with a subsidy that reimbursed them for up to 32 percent of their per-pupil spending to offset the cost of charter schools. Pennsylvania eliminated that assistance, which cost districts $219 million in revenue, half of which was earmarked for Philadelphia schools, according to Pew.
“As a result of the change,” the report said, “individual districts had to spend a greater percentage of their overall funding on charter school students.”
Pennsylvania is one of five states that makes individual districts responsible for funding charter schools, placing a “greater financial burden on districts such as Philadelphia,” according to the Pew report.
The state determines how much districts must fund charters based on the district’s per-pupil operational cost, which is determined by taking the district total cost per pupil and subtracting certain federal reimbursements along with expenditures for facilities, transportation, adult education, dual enrollment and pre-K programs. Using this model funds charters $1,500 less per student than traditional public schools, according to the Commonwealth Foundation.
Last year, Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale issued a similar evaluation calling for an overhaul of the state’s charter laws, saying the system was “seriously flawed” and recommended restoring an exclusive funding stream for charters. In some cases, DePasquale found disparities in pupil funding as much as $21,000 among districts and $10,000 among charters.
Among DePasquale’s recommendations were to eliminate cyber charter school payments from school districts and replace them with direct funding from the state. He also recommended requiring charter schools to have the same teacher and principal performance evaluations as school districts.
“For school districts, the increasing costs of tuition, as more students opt to attend charter schools, combined with the loss in 2011 of the charter school reimbursement paid by the state are part of the funding problem,” he said.
Despite the hurdles facing charter schools in Pennsylvania, one school district could turn completely charter. The York City School District was taken over by the state in 2012 and may turn over its eight schools to Charter Schools USA in an effort to repair its bleeding budget and improve students’ academic performance. If approved, York would be the fourth district in the country to go all-charter.
Gov. Tom Wolf has made education a major issue as he takes office and establishing a progressive funding formula is among his administration’s top priorities as Pennsylvania faces a $2 billion budget deficit. Finding new revenue streams for schools will be a challenge, but lawmakers have already begun the process of fixing what is clearly a problem for districts across the commonwealth.
Last year, Harrisburg formed the Basic Education Funding Commission, a 15-member committee tasked with developing and recommending a new school funding formula to the Legislature. Its final report is due in June.
