JLF’s Terry Stoops writes today about the new state budget which, despite claims that it makes “critical investments” in public education, actually attempts to starve public charter schools of funding.
What is particularly shady about the budget provisions is that legislative leaders did not explicitly mention charter schools. Instead, they targeted the “local current expense” fund. According to state statute, charter schools are entitled to an equal per pupil share of funds contained in the local current expense fund. The budget states that various sources of revenue are “not construed as a local current expense appropriation.” Therefore, these funds are off limits to charter schools.
The fair distribution of local current expense funds was the subject of an important 2007 lawsuit, Sugar Creek Charter School et al. v. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. Plaintiffs alleged that the district withheld funds that it was obliged to allocate to charter schools within its jurisdiction. Recently, a three-judge N.C. Court of Appeals panel ruled that the school system unlawfully withheld reserve fund balances, Hurricane Katrina relief funds, sales tax reimbursements, preschool program funds, donations for specific programs, and capital reimbursements to the tune of $1.3 million. By design, the budget passed this week will keep this revenue away from charter schools statewide.
This is not the first (nor will it be the last) attempt to starve charter schools. Shortly after the unanimous appellate ruling in the Sugar Creek case, brazen officials representing the state’s Department of Public Instruction and Local Government Commission recommended that school districts use an accounting procedure to keep funds away from charter schools. They called it Fund 8. The budget passed by the General Assembly this week legitimizes their accounting trick. Perhaps Fund 0 is a more appropriate name.
