We respect The League of Women Voters’ right to voice their opinion on whether to lift the cap on public charters schools, but not to misrepresent how we are funded.
In a March 9 letter, the organization’s claim that charters take a disproportionate share of Northampton’s Chapter 70 state aid leaves out an important fact.
District schools are funded through a combination of local and state revenues. In Northampton, local revenues make up 83 percent of the school budget, while state aid accounts for only 17 percent. But 100 percent of charter funding is taken out of the smaller state aid portion.
No locally generated revenues, such as property taxes, are transferred to charters. This leads some to incorrectly argue that charters are taking an unfair share of school dollars. The formula could be changed so charters receive funds from both local and state revenues, but it would make no difference at all to the district budget.
The funding formula for charters is like this:
Parents choose to enroll their children in charter schools.
Since the districts are no longer educating these students, the amount of money they would spend to educate them is reallocated to the charters.
The state reimburses districts for six years after students leave: 100 percent reimbursement the first year, and then 25 percent in each of the next five years. It should be noted that this reimbursement has been fully funded in eight of the past 10 years, with the exception of fiscal years 2015-2017, as the state wrestled with huge budget deficits.
As legislators debate the issue, and voters consider the ballot question, they should understand that the fiscal arguments against lifting charter enrollment caps are overstated.
Lisa Hamilton
Hadley
The author is a parent of a student at the Hilltown Cooperative Charter Public School in Easthampton.