Thursday, December 5, 2013

Ohio Charter Payments Hit Record High

Today marks the date of the latest state funding payment to school districts. And after several months of lagging Charter School deductions, the first payment in December shows that children in traditional public schools will lose a record amount of money to mostly underperforming Charter Schools.

According to the state report, Charters will receive just under $871 million this year -- an increase of just under 6% from last year, which was just about $824 million. The $871 million is about a $16 million increase over what state legislators told the public it should expect for Charter School deductions.

Chances are, that $871 million will grow over the course of the year because Charter funding is very fluid.

So stay tuned, and watch those state funding reports. They will say a lot. Primarily, they will show emphatically that Ohio has got to stop investing so much money in failing Charter Schools. Leaders should invest in Charters that work, and use the money spent on failing Charters to invest in programming that will help the 90% of kids who are not in Ohio's Charter Schools to better succeed.