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State illegally transfers local funds to charter schools
By William Phillis

State data show that most school districts lose local funds to the charter industry. All but a handful of districts receive less state foundation funding per pupil than is deducted for charter school pupils. The difference comes from local tax revenue approved by the school district patrons for the purpose of educational programs and services within the district.

In some cases, local districts are required to write checks to the state because the charter school deductions from those districts exceed state foundation payments to the districts.

When the charter school industry was in its initial stages of development in Ohio, some state officials concocted the bogus argument that charter school students have first claim on a district's state funds and district students must be funded first from local revenue; therefore, they reasoned that no local revenue is given up by school districts. This was the state's attempt to avoid the legal quandary that local revenue is illegally transferred to charters.

The state-established, privately-operated, publicly-funded charter schools are inventions not within the bounds of the constitutional provision for a thorough and efficient system of common schools. Most of the charters in Ohio are not associated with an elected public board of education. Therefore, these private entities should not be funded through deductions from school districts, especially since revenue is involved.

Some local school district property taxpayers should challenge the state's unlawful charter funding policy.

William Phillis
Ohio E & A


 
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