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State illegally
transfers local funds to charter schools
By William Phillis
State data show that most school districts lose local funds to the
charter industry. All but a handful of districts receive less state
foundation funding per pupil than is deducted for charter school
pupils. The difference comes from local tax revenue approved by the
school district patrons for the purpose of educational programs and
services within the district.
In some cases, local districts are required to write checks to the
state because the charter school deductions from those districts exceed
state foundation payments to the districts.
When the charter school industry was in its initial stages of
development in Ohio, some state officials concocted the bogus argument
that charter school students have first claim on a district's state
funds and district students must be funded first from local revenue;
therefore, they reasoned that no local revenue is given up by school
districts. This was the state's attempt to avoid the legal quandary
that local revenue is illegally transferred to charters.
The state-established, privately-operated, publicly-funded charter
schools are inventions not within the bounds of the constitutional
provision for a thorough and efficient system of common schools. Most
of the charters in Ohio are not associated with an elected public board
of education. Therefore, these private entities should not be funded
through deductions from school districts, especially since revenue is
involved.
Some local school district property taxpayers should challenge the
state's unlawful charter funding policy.
William Phillis
Ohio E & A
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