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Charter Students Get Less Than Traditional Public Students Under New School Funding Formula

Karen Kasler

A new school funding formula proposed by two state lawmakers would cost a billion dollars more than the current K-12 formula. And that proposal didn't include money for charter schools. Now it appears charter school students would get a lot less money than traditional public school kids under that plan.

Sources say the new formula would allocate $6220 for each charter school student in the first year. That’s just $200 more than the current state aid per student.

But the new formula would increase the average funding for each traditional public school student to over $7300.

Chad Aldis is with the pro-charter group the Fordham Institute, which operates some charters in Ohio. He wants to know specifics on other funding that charters now get, such as for kids in poverty.

“$200 more in the base funding amount could result in a lot less money for charter schools.  Right now, we simply don’t know," Aldis said.

Reps. Bob Cupp (R-Lima) and John Patterson (D-Jefferson) are still working on the final details of their formula, which they hope could be part of the House version of Gov. Mike DeWine’s budget. DeWine has said he’d like lawmakers to stick with his proposal.

Copyright 2020 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.
Karen Kasler
Contact Karen at 614/578-6375 or at kkasler@statehousenews.org.