During testimony on Tuesday evening, Gov. John Kasich's Education Funding Czar Barbara Mattei-Smith said she could not do projections on what Charter Schools would cost under the Governor's new Charter School formula because she didn't have the data. The assertion was made again this morning during testimony from the Ohio Department of Education.
It is important to figure this out because under the current system, school districts lose more than $800 million a year to Charters, leaving kids not in Charters with 6.5% less state revenue than the state says they need to succeed. The new Charter School formula is more complicated for districts and Charters to figure out, so Charter-by-Charter projections should be produced to allow lawmakers and schools to plan for the new reality.
Last night on the Ohio Department of Education's website, I found a Charter School Simulation tool that allows Charter Schools to figure out what their payments would be from different school districts, given the kids they are educating.
Am I dense, or could the state simply change the formulas in the Excel spreadsheet to reflect the new Charter School formula and do a pretty good approximation so that districts and Charters have a good idea of what's coming?
So why, again, couldn't the Governor's Education Funding Czar do that at some point during the two years the office has been developing this funding formula?
This is getting weird.
