The new Charter School Law raises the statewide cap on charter schools from 200 to 460. The legislation opens up 114 new charters specifically for New York City.
All in all,  it’s a good law that protects charter school autonomy, maintains SUNY’s authorizing power, and protects the rights of charters to co-locate in public school buildings. On the down side, the law bars schools from contracting with for-profit managers moving forward, even those managers with a track record of high student achievement. There are also implications for applicants and school operations. The Charter Center is in the process of reviewing the law in order to provide guidance to schools.

Click here to read the implications of the new law for current applicants. 

The Charter Per-Pupil Funding Freeze

In good times and bad, charter schools receive less government funding than traditional public schools. Their central source of revenue is a per-pupil allocation from the state, which is set through a fixed formula based on how much school districts have spent in recent years. For the 2009-10 school year, the Legislature set aside the formula and froze charter school funding at the previous year’s level—even as school districts’ funding increased.

It is imperative that charter schools not see their state funding get frozen again in 2010-11. The math is simple: Costs rise every year. If revenues are held flat for consecutive years,  painful cuts will be inevitable. This is a particular problem for unionized charter schools, which pay mandatory pension contributions that increase annually.

Charter schools already do more with less, and they already participate in every budget cut through the funding formula. They should not be singled out for additional cuts.