The Ohio Charter School Accountability Project
The Ohio Charter School Accountability Project, an ally of the state teachers union, claims school districts in the state received $1,596 less per-pupil, on average, than charter schools from the state budget. With this dash of data, the organization argues districts end up subsidizing charter school enrollment by having to make up this difference through budget cuts or new taxes.
According to Aaron Churchill, a policy analyst with the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the Accountability Project’s claims are only partially correct. Citing a report from the University of Arkansas, he notes charter schools do receive more in state funds than district schools, but get no local tax revenues. Overall, charter schools have about $2,400 per-pupil less to spend than district schools.
Like most states, Ohio requires local districts to raise support for schools. To ensure equity between districts, the state provides more resources to poorer districts that cannot raise as much local support. A similar rationale comes into play for charter schools which, again, get no local support. The difference in state funding between charters and districts is exacerbated in the wealthier areas that receive little state support. If a rich district received $1,000 in state support and $9,000 in local support, the Accountability Project wants charter schools to receive ONLY the $1,000 in state support. That simply isn’t reasonable.
But does that mean districts are subsidizing charter school enrollment as the Accountability Project claims? Nope. “Their logic is tortured,” says Churchill.
Grade: Needs Improvement
Christian Schneider – Milwaukee Sentinel Journal columnist
What if there was a voucher that could be used at private religious schools and that fact bothered no one? What if that voucher program was so uncontroversial that public schools happily co-existed with publicly funded private options? That is the thought exercise Christian Schneider proposes to his readers in the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal before dropping a bomb: such a program already exists in Wisconsin. It’s just for higher education.
So why don’t K-12 school vouchers receive the same treatment? Good question.
Florida also has a highly popular, higher ed voucher (the Bright Futures Scholarship) that allows students to receive tax dollars to attend private religious schools. In fact, the program is so uncontroversial (at least in terms of where students choose to use the scholarships) that people even call it a scholarship, rather than a voucher. You’ll find few people doing the same for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship which, by definition, is not a voucher. (The tax credit scholarship program is administered by nonprofits like Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog.)
Grade: Satisfactory
Arizona’s Education Savings Accounts
I’m just going to let parents and teachers do the talking:
Grade: Satisfactory
