Charter Schools and Budget Battles

ConnCAN sent out an alert last Friday about Connecticut's Governor Rell's latest budget, which includes substantial cuts to the state's charter schools. Nevermind that Connecticut's charter schools already receive less per-student than traditional public schools and face caps on the number of students they can enroll. Or that, according to this report, they have greater student achievement gains than traditional public schools. Still, charter schools are singled out for cuts in the budget.

And Connecticut charters are not alone. Charter schools in Washington, D.C., which educate 36 percent of the city's public school students are facing cuts to their facilities funding - cuts the traditional public schools are not facing. Earlier this year, charter schools in New York faced a similar fate. And the New Hampshire legislature is debating a proposal to cap the number of students enrolled in charter schools (and I thought the state motto was "Live Free or Die"?) below current enrollment levels, meaning some students would have to leave their schools.

States are facing hard times right now, and Governors and state legislators must make difficult choices, including cutting public school budgets. But, these cuts should not hurt some public schools (and charter schools are public schools) more than others - as part of the public school system, charter school students deserve the same levels of public funding and support as their traditional public school counterparts. It will be a sad day if Governors and state legislatures across the country decide to use charter schools, and the disproportionately low-income and minority students they serve, as an easy out for difficult budget decisions.