Macon school board opposes charter school bill
Macon County School Board signed a resolution opposing House Bill 219. MCS photo
The Macon County School Board has signed a resolution in opposition to a bill that would greatly expand the ways in which charter schools have access to locally appropriated public school funding. While the bill’s supporters tout equal funding for charter schools, board members worry the legislation would further strain public school systems that are already strapped for cash.
“This bill is just simply not what it purports to be in equality and fairness,” said Board Attorney John Henning, in a presentation to the school board during its March 27 meeting.
House Bill 219, titled Charter School Omnibus, makes various changes to the laws affecting charter schools. Of most concern to the Macon County School Board are the ways in which charter schools can access funding for public schools, which receive money from federal, state and local governments. Charter schools are independent public schools that receive a certain amount of funding from the public school district in which they operate for each student they enroll. That amount is based on how much funding public schools receive per student, which can vary greatly by county.
“The way that they’re funded, in part, is if there are local appropriations, the idea is the local amount follows the kids to the charter school,” said Henning. “You got a charter school kid in Macon County who lives here that goes somewhere else for their charter school, the local current expense amount follows them.”
The bill, if passed as currently written, would delete the list of protected funds (those that public schools do not have to share with charter schools), with the exception of trust funds, federal grants with restricted use and special programs. That means that public school districts would be on the hook for sharing appropriations like reimbursements. After the school system has already doled out the per-student local appropriation to a charter school, if it then pays for something using its own money and is reimbursed by the county, the school system would need to share a certain amount of that reimbursement with the charter schools.
“By deleting the list of protected funds, House Bill 219 creates unequal rather than equal local funding for K-12 education,” the resolution reads. “If House Bill 219 passes, the total financial impact to the Macon County Schools lost in K-12 operating funds based on FY 2022-23 will be substantial.”
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What’s more, the school system would be on the hook for any student that is a Macon County resident attending a charter school, even if the charter school is outside Macon County. According to Henning, if a school system appropriated fund balance back into its current expense budget, it would need to figure out how many Macon residents are off at charter schools, anywhere, and pay per student back to those charter schools.
“It’s just plain unfair, in addition to being an accounting nightmare,” Henning said.
Superintendent Chris Baldwin noted that House Bill 219 would require public schools to share funding with charter schools, even in cases where charter schools do not provide the services for which public schools receive funding.
“Certain funds that should not be appropriated or shared with charter schools because the charter school does not provide the program,” Baldwin said. “So, in other words, if we provide transportation, meal services, and the charter school doesn’t, we still have to share any money that we have that’s appropriated locally for these services.”
The bill would also allow a charter school to go to its county commission for capital outlay funding. As it stands now, charter schools must fund capital projects on their own. Henning suggested the board work in tandem with the Macon County Commission to oppose this portion of the legislation.
“They’ve toyed with that over the years and commissioners have not wanted to entertain that because they know they will be approached and begged for charter school funding to build buildings for them,” said Henning. “That’s also your funding for buildings. The way the bill was written, it would be very difficult to overcome it.”
The Macon County School Board voted unanimously to approve the resolution opposing House Bill 219.
“We have got two parallel public school systems in the state of North Carolina. That’s traditional K-12 school systems like this one, and then charter schools,” said Henning. “If a kid lives in this county and shows up here, you’re enrolled no matter what else is going on. It’s just not true of charter schools.”
