Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Do You Always Get What You Pay For ?

Do both public charter schools and traditional public schools in major metropolitan areas receive equitable per-pupil funding? 

The University of Arkansas has looked at this question for several years, and looked at the comparable funding in 15 cities. The Public Charter School Funding Study is a series of analyses comparing the funding levels between public charter schools and traditional public schools across the country. 

They defined a public charter school as any school that (1) operates based on a formal charter in place of direct school district management and (2) reports its finances independently from the school district. We define all other public schools as traditional public schools (TPS).

The latest study, “Charter School Funding: (More) Inequity in the City,” examines all sources of revenue including federal, state, local and nonpublic dollars during the 2015-16 school year in 15 cities across the nation that have a high concentration of enrollment in charter schools. The 15 urban areas that are included in the study include Atlanta, Boston, Camden, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Memphis, New Orleans, New York City, Oakland, San Antonio, Tulsa, and Washington.

The results generally show that among schools that serve a similar population of students, public charter schools are funded at lower levels than traditional public schools. Charter schools in all 15 cities received on average 27 percent less total revenue than traditional public schools (an average $5,721 per pupil). Differences in the rates of enrolling students with special educational needs only explain the charter school funding gap in the cities of Atlanta and Boston.

In general it is accepted that the students that attend most charter schools do better. For example in 2019 in NYC, black and Hispanic middle school students at the Success Academy Charter Schools network were accepted to the elite NYC high schools at double the rate of their black and Hispanic cohorts citywide. Not a surprise as the same thing happened in 2018. Keep in mind that Success Academy chooses their students by lottery, and the acceptance, or not, to the select high schools is based on a single highly competitive entrance test. 

Many years ago one of my neighbors told me that Dr. X was his doctor because Dr. X charged more for an office visit than anybody else in town, and therefore, he must have been the best. “You get what you pay for,” he told me. Likewise, people who shop at Nordstrom’s know that they while they are paying more for something, they are getting something of higher quality, and that’s okay because, “You get what you pay for!”

So far, so good, but it is here that I get puzzled because the economic adage, “you get what you pay for” does not seem to apply when it comes to educating children. Most charter schools do a better job at educating children than the local TPS, but yet in the comparative study noted above, the charters do so with an average 27% less revenue.

In New York City the revenue discrepancy between charters and TPS is $5,008 per student. Imagine how many of the 50,000-plus New York City school children on charter-school wait list could be accommodated if the total amount of money in that revenue discrepancy could be reallocated to fund more charters in NYC . . . and as a bonus, NYC would actually get what it was paying for, namely better educated children!

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