Charter Schools: Why is there a debate?
In the past eight months, there has been a good deal of debate about public charter schools in North Carolina. The debate has mostly focused on the arbitrary cap of 100 that was set in 1995, with charter advocates wanting to increase or eliminate the cap.
With the 2010 legislative session over, the discussion regarding charter schools has now focused on their funding. North Carolina’s charter law states:
The State Board of Education shall allocate to each charter school an amount equal to the average per pupil allocation for average daily membership from the local school administrative unit allotments in which the charter school is located for each child attending.
In other words, the money from the traditional public school a child would otherwise attend is supposed to follow that child to the charter school.
However, often times charter schools are underfunded. Last year, the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld a decision by a lower court that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools owed Charlotte area charter schools almost $6 million – with some of the money overdue by 8 years. Since then charter schools across the state have found that they have not received equal payment per student and have threatened suit for equal payment.
However, the North Carolina General Assembly passed “special provision in the state budget that will limit the money charters get from local school districts,” according to the Raleigh News & Observer. Charter advocates feel that this provision undermines the letter and spirit of last year’s court decision.
The most confusing question of all is why is there such a fight about charter schools? Charter schools were created to establish small, locally-controlled schools that were designated to help close the achievement gap. And they are succeeding! After the 2009-10 school year, more than 49% of North Carolina’s charter schools were named either School of Distinction or Honor School of Excellence.
It seems that what North Carolinians, policymakers included, should want is more schools that perform at such a high level. So, why is their a cap? Why are they underfunded? Most importantly, why is there a debate?
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