Charter school students do not get the "short end of the stick!"  Charter schools are not level funded by the students they serve, but by the "average" the sending district spends on all its students. Let me explain, to educate a regular ed student in BPS cost $11,558. However, when you add the cost of all the BPS Special Ed & Ell students the cost averages out to $14,704! Charter Schools are paid the "average" $14,704. even though their population of students is mostly regular ed, and in no way reflects the demographic of the BPS! What a windfall for these charter schools! So not only do charters not service our SPED or ELL students, they legally swindle BPS out of  $3,146+ per student! That money comes out of the budgets of traditional BPS schools that are servicing Boston's neediest children!  It is no wonder why charter schools target urban areas! It's not about "the children" at all, it's about the money!  If you took the "average of $1,235" per student on facilities, the charter is still left with $1,911.00 more than a Boston public school student!  What doesn't seem to be mentioned here, charters receive the breakfast and lunch money too! Go look at the State Cherry Sheets!  It's a nice chunk of change!

Then there is the door to door transportation costs that are footed by the sending district. The BPS reports on their own site, "State law requires BPS to drive charter school students to their schools even if they are outside their home zone, which is a much higher level of service than is provided to most students in BPS! Transportation costs are expected to rise by $2.6 million in FY13 and $20.3 million in FY14 as the number of charter school students in Boston increases."

23 Charter schools are saturated Boston. Most of them are located in the East Zone neighborhoods of Dorchester, Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale and Roxbury. Turning the remaining traditional public schools into dumping grounds for SPED, ELL, and students found "not to be the right fit" (read behavior problems) for these segregation academy charter schools!  Mayor Menino and Superintendent Johnson systematically un-resource traditional BPS schools (remember the Marshall School and the 12 closed schools) causing them to fail. The appointed school committee gave away the Gavin School to Unlocking Potential, an educational management organization (EMO), Unlocking Potential (UP) who receives $600,000. from BPS just to "manage" 476 kids!  Another $500,000, is earmarked to UP to manage the Marshall School! This is quite a bit of money considering Boston pays Dr. Johnson $ 323,222. and she manages 57,000 students!

Marc Kenen said, "Charter school students should have the same amount of money paid for their education as their peers in the community,"  I agree, level fund charter students in these segregation academy charter schools for the regular ed students they actually service!  Return the money to the Special Education and ELL students who need it the most!

Kevin Andrews says that most charters do not have access to outside funds like his charter.  Are you kidding?  The foundations have been falling all over themselves to boost charters. Public schools get nowhere near the foundation support that charters do.

When first running for Governor in 2006, Deval Patrick said the funding mechanisism for Charters were a drain on local district budgets.  Nothing has changed, except the problem has gotten worse.  Now, surprise, the Charter Schools say they need a bigger piece of the pie, draining even more resources from district budgets.  Another fact missing from this debate is the uneven quality of charter schools and the lack of data that would demonstrate that increased funding would result in better results. 

Charter schools should be getting a large part of their funds through tuition.  Charter schools have become a throwback to separate but equal.  I would far prefer to see Salem public schools improved to spending money to raise the children of the Buffy and Mitt clones that come to my door with petitions to open more charters.  

There is at least one article in the Globe per week that discusses some aspect of charter schools. With all the attention to the issue, I would like to see the Globe publish statistics that compare the performance of charter schools to traditional public schools taking into consideration that charter schools teach fewer special education and ELL students. Just some good statistics.

Zt least in the suburbs charter schools have largely become the refuge of the same tea baggers that want to cut spending and reduce taxes.  But first, they want everyone to help pay to give their children an educational advantage over other students.   I will support charter schools when i start seeing underprivileged people asking for them instead of people in beemers.

Kevin Andrews wears many hats, not only is he headmaster at Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester is also 1 of 5  "trustees" of the Neighborhood House Charter School Foundation whose net assets, according to their FY2011, IRS 990’s, are $10,566,943.00! "Donated services and use of facilities" alone netted them $10,340.00!  WOW! No bake or candy sales for them!  I would suggest to Kevin Andrews that NHCS Foundation should tap into that $10,566,943.00 and fund those charter schools that "do not have the same kind of access to outside resources" as he does!  After all it's “for the children!”

What wasn’t mentioned here was that Kevin Andrews is the Vice-Chair of "Project for School Innovation Trust" (PSI) whose mission is "to develop and share the best practices across public schools, including charter schools, on a national scale. Specifically PSI researches, evaluates and disseminates innovative and effective practices through books, videos and conferences. PSI also facilitates training and workshops in a team-based environment for school leaders and teachers."  

What Matt Wilder didn't mention is that PSI stands to make a nice chunk of change when Boston receives the $3.25 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation "to foster collaboration among the city’s school system, charter schools, and parochial schools!" Will those "collaboration workshops" be held at NHCS for an additional $10,340 a pop! Will those NHCS teachers who's "innovative and effective practices" which spawned the books, videos and conferences, that PSI is selling, be compensated for this work? 

You can see why Boston Alliance of Charter Schools chairman, Kevin Andrews, is chomping at the bit to eliminate the charter school cap in Massachusetts!  It isn't about "the children" for him, it's about the windfall his bottom line is about to make!

Charter schools have millions in the bank. Let me repeat: CHARTER SCHOOLS HAVE MILLIONS IN THE BANK! Why did they need more money? The money will be sucked from PUBLIC schools to fund the entrepreneurial spirit of charter operators. these charter operators do not serve the all same kids that traditional schools serve. They serve cheaper to educate kids who score better, which in turn "dukes the stats" in their favor. Charter operators receive a handsome fee for their services (running the company). Charters receive staggering amounts of money from foundation venture philanthropy. "According to the study, published by two charter school advocacy groups..." says it all! Do you really think they will report the truth? No, it's not good for their bottom line, and fat pockets!

In case you were wondering why all of a sudden this issue went dead...

UPDATE: From Massachusetts Charter Public School Association's per Marc Kenen

The recent report issued by the Colorado League of Charter Schools and the National Alliance for Charter Public Schools on Massachusetts charter school facilities funding had an error in its first finding.  Massachusetts charter schools pay 3% of their per pupil operating revenue on facilities costs, not 7% as indicated in the initial report.

Here's a link to the revised report and a letter from the authors .  Our apologies for any inconvenience.

https://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50780/images/CSFI-MassachusettsREV%28020413%29.pdf

https://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50780/images/Massachusetts-Error-Letter%28020413%29.pdf