Funding for Charter Schools

As public schools, charter schools are funded through a combination of federal, state and local tax dollars. Different than non-charter public schools, though, charters have the freedom to determine how to spend their funds – in exchange for being held accountable for their academic, fiscal and operational results.

There is wide variation from state to state, though, in how the funding of charter schools actually works. Some of the most serious funding problems involve restrictions on the use of funding by charter schools, delays in payments to charter schools and forcing charter schools to pay for their facilities out of their operational budget.

What is consistent across the country – and most problematic – is that public charter schools receive significantly lower funding than non-charter public schools. A recent analysis of 24 states and the District of Columbia, covering 93 percent of the nation’s public charter school population, shows an average per-pupil funding gap of 19.2 percent or $2,247, when compared to traditional public schools in the same state during the 2006-2007 school year.  For a typical 250-student charter school, the funding gap amounts to a nearly $562,000 shortfall every year.  The gap was even larger – 27.8 percent – in “focus districts,” 40 cities where almost half of all charter schools in the study are located.