There is an "urban legend" out there that charter schools (taxpayer funded public school academies) are draining resources from the public school system. When a student attends a charter he/she is taking away foundation grant money from the local "public" school.
Fact is, charter school ARE public schools and, on average, taxpayers spend about $2,600 less per student in a charter school when you consider additional payments and local millages that go to traditional public schools.
Charters use privately owned facilities to educate their children, which means the school building is generating tax revenue. They result in a net gain in employment for teachers, and most importantly, they produce more high school graduates and more college attendees and graduates than many of their conventional public counterparts.
A full report on the positive impact of charter schools on local communities is available at: http://www.publiccharters.org/content/publication/detail/2338/
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
"Fact is, charter school ARE public schools and, on average, taxpayers spend about $2,600 less per student in a charter school when you consider additional payments and local millages that go to traditional public schools."
The cost of maintaining public buildings does not go down when a parent opts to send their child to a charter school. A few less students does not mean we can bulldoze the local high school. It does mean a few fewer parents are interested in seeing that high school maintained, but the cost to the public is still there. It is not a cost savings at all. In fact, it increases the cost per student to the taxpayers and creates excess infrastructure.
Can charter schools use any portion of the state foundation grant to pay for construction, maintenance or upkeep of those private buildings? Are those buildings constructed up to the standards we have for public institutions?
I think charters are a great experiment and more options are wonderful. They are not an option for everyone so our public schools must be maintained and should be funded so they can continue to improve.
Post a Comment