RI League of Charter Schools: RIPEC Report on Public Charter Schools Confirms Inequity of Funding
Friday, June 04, 2021
The Rhode Island League of Charter Schools is applauding the recent release of the independent research and analysis of charter schools by the R.I. Public Expenditures Council (RIPEC).
The League says the report confirms that charter public schools play an integral part in the public education system in Rhode Island and makes important policy recommendations.
RIPEC also points out the disparity in public school funding for charter schools relative to district schools.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“RIPEC has found that our charter public schools are disparately underfunded in Rhode Island and we welcome a comprehensive review of our current funding formula to address these disparities,” said Keith A. Oliveira, Executive Director of the R.I. League of Charter Schools.
“RIPEC’s independent research and analysis is well-respected and valued in Rhode Island. We welcome their study of the history and positive impact that charter schools have had on our public education system in Rhode Island. Their findings confirm that charter schools provide valued public school options that are in increased demand by Rhode Island families.” said Oliveira, whose organization represents 18 charter schools.
RIPEC reported, "Factoring in all sources of funding—federal, state, local, and private—charter public schools together had per pupil expenditures that were 16.4% lower than Rhode Island’s overall per pupil expenditures ($15,444 vs. $17,983) and lower than every district in the state but Woonsocket ($15,372) in FY2019."
Based on its analysis, RIPEC offers several recommendations to policymakers:
- The state should support new charter public schools and the expansion of existing charters, particularly charter schools focused on serving students who reside in low-performing school districts, rather than impose a moratorium on charter expansion.
- While charter public schools are high-performing overall, there are several that have consistently underperformed. Despite the considerable oversight of charter schools, there is room for RIDE to exercise more rigorous action to either improve these low-performing schools through significant conditions around student supports and performance or revoke their charters.
- Policymakers should work to better understand the reasons for successful outcomes in charter public schools and seek to replicate these practices in traditional public schools.
- Charter school expansion implicates real financial issues for sending districts under the school funding formula, but as charter public schools are already funded at a lower level, the solution is not to cut farther into the local share for charter public schools. Rather, policymakers should consider adopting glidepath payments to sending districts, similar to the model used in Massachusetts, to account for the transitional financial challenges charter public school expansion can have on traditional public schools. This would increase education costs, but there is currently considerable additional funding available for K-12 education under the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
- Policymakers should consider addressing a secondary issue related to funding—that high-cost special education costs are borne more heavily by district schools than charter public schools—by both lowering the threshold for reimbursement and dedicating a larger funding stream to high-cost special education.
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