The charter school would offer students many different ways of learning.
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The NJCSA said limiting charter schools’ fund balance would threaten their viability.
With almost 100,000 students enrolled in New York City charters, a 15 percent set-aside is the equivalent of thirty 500-seat elementary schools for charter staff families only. In most cases, the charter schools bill the districts directly. One set of bills has gone out, he said, and the charter school has been receiving payments from districts.
The challenge is not limited to charter schools. The state has not adopted a 2015 budget, so funding for school districts and other agencies has not been released.
In an email sent to the Indiana Department of Education on Friday, The U.S. Department of Education said that state education officials made a mistake when calculating Title I funding for charters, according to Chalkbeat Indiana, which obtained a copy of the email.
“Many brick-and-mortar charter schools across the state are struggling to remain open during the state budget impasse”, Eller said. Duncan has been a strong advocate for charter schools.
“The only way for a charter school to purchase or renovate a building is to accumulate a fund balance from their operating funds”, the statement said.
Ritz’s inquiry came amid an overall reduction in Title I funding and what she called “a significant decrease” in enrollment of low-income students for several charter schools. “Districts must recognize the harm they are inflicting on a student’s right to a high-quality education”. “Some have had to fold, some are struggling to find their way”, he said, referring to poor-performing charter schools. Such schools receive per-pupil funding from their school districts.
The two congressional representatives go on to write that for fiscal 2016, 22 of the 59 charter schools in Indiana received less than 85 percent of their Title I funding during the previous fiscal year.
Bob Fayfich, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, told Watchdog some districts refuse to pass through any money to local charter schools.
“Right now we’re just playing it by ear”, he said. “Those charters with the least financial reserves are feeling the pressure more acutely”.
But McKeown said the education department’s reasoning is confusing because charter schools don’t get Census poverty counts.
Chalkbeat Indiana is a not-for-profit news site covering educational change in public schools.
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She said it seems that those in urban and rural areas are being most impacted by the budget impasse. “Instead, that payment won’t happen, and it’s the children who will ultimately feel the pinch”. In its budget request for 2016, the Obama administration is seeking $375 million for the program – a 48 percent increase over current funding levels.
