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Public school district
conversions to charter schools
STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX (April. 15, 2014) – The Legislature has considered
several scenarios to address the situation that has arisen from public school
districts converting some of their school facilities into charter schools. If we
allow districts to continue to make these conversions, although legal, it will
create a financial impact on the state budget that is unsustainable and blurr
the lines of accountability and oversight that the Legislature established.Based on the rate school districts have been converting existing school facilities into charter schools, the impact to the state’s General Fund is significant and unsustainable. The Joint Legislative Budget Committee estimates the conversion would cost the General Fund an additional $33 million in fiscal year 2015 to more than $200 million by fiscal year 2017. This money would be in addition to existing funding and mandated inflationary increases.
The end result, if allowed to continue, would put both public and charter school systems in jeopardy and could hurt current efforts by the legislature and Governor Brewer to ensure that all Arizona children receive a quality education that will enable them to compete globally.
The reality is that the Legislature has increased school funding over the last two fiscal years by more than $200 million, putting the education portion of the General Fund budget only $130 million lower than its 2008 peak of $3.9 billion.
Moreover, the K-12 student population as of October 2009, the first year that unduplicated counts were collected, was 1,078,697, including district and charter school students. As of October 2013, the comparable figure was 1,102,319, according to the Arizona Department of Education, a little more than 23,000 students higher.
Prior to Fiscal Year 2014, districts sponsoring their own charter schools was not an immediate concern; only 12 district run charter schools existed. However, during fiscal year 2014 another 59 district run charters schools were setup.
When districts do this, they are legally exploiting a loophole in the law. That loophole results in a hybrid entity. That entity has access to property tax funding and other benefits that traditional public school districts have as well as access to the higher per student funding rate that charter schools receive by design to offset the financial advantages of traditional public schools.
The result is a district/charter hybrid where per-student funding on average exceeds traditional public school district funding by more than $1,000 per student, and traditional charter school funding by $2500. This is not fair to those traditional public and charter schools that are following the intent of the law, or the children attending these schools.
Regardless of the financial impact, the present situation also raises conerns over accountability and oversight. Currently a district can approve its own request to setup a charter school, unlike a traditional charter school, which must get approved by one of five entities: the State Board of Education, the State Board for Charter Schools, a community college district, a university and a school district governing board.
This kind of district/charter hybrid is not what the Legislature intended. In fact, the Legislature intended that if a district sponsored a charter school, the district would also act as a consultant to the charter school, earning fees from the consulting. The idea being that a public school district would objectively advise a charter school. When the people sponsoring and consulting for the charter school are the same people running it, that creates in my mind a conflict of interest that legislators must fix.
We must continue to improve and find ways to fund all educational options for our children that include district schools, charter schools and home schooling. But we must also be wise and prudent about how we accomplish it. Fixing the district/charter loophole is a step in the right direction.
Arizona House Republican Caucus
http://www.azhouserepublicans.com/
