Do Charter Schools Receive Their Fair Share of Funding? School Finance Equity for Charter and Traditional Public Schools

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: School Choice and Finance

Abstract

Charter schools are publicly funded through state school finance formulas that often mirror the traditional public school finance systems. While charter school advocates and critics disagree over whether charters receive an equitable share of funding, few discussions are based on rigorous analysis of funding and expenditures. We demonstrate how analyses that use the appropriate methodological techniques can shed light on disagreements about charter school finance policy. We find that after accounting for differences in accounting structures and external cost factors, large charter school districts in Texas receive significantly more state and local funding compared to traditional public schools, while smaller charters receive less funding. We discuss the implications of these findings for charter school finance policy nationally.

Authors

• David S. Knight, University of Washington

• Laurence A. Toenjes, University of Houston