3 Charter Schools in Buncombe County Seeking $1.3 Million (NC)
June 21, 2010
More than 10 years after a charter school sued Asheville City Schools over funding, the issue has come up again.
This time, three charter schools are seeking $1.3 million from the district.
Evergreen Community Charter School, Francine Delany New School for Children and ArtSpace Charter School also sent a letter seeking nearly $700,000 from Buncombe County schools.
While no lawsuit has been filed, an attorney for the charter schools says the city and county systems have underfunded the schools over a three-year period.
“I would like to see the children getting their fair share,” said Stan Cross, parent of two children at Evergreen Charter School. “For me, the bigger issue that this case begins to point to is the inequitable distribution of taxpayer funds throughout the public school system.”
“Charter schools are funded at a much lower rate than the noncharter public schools,” Cross said.
The schools are tuition-free public schools, funded through tax dollars, but with more freedom than traditional public schools.
City school officials question whether charter schools should get a portion of money that is intended for specific programs that charter schools do not provide. One example is the city school preschool program.
“Those (funds) are targeted to specific populations and demographics in terms of ages and socio-economic status,” said Cynthia Grady, attorney for Asheville City Schools. “Other grants are targeted to the high school age group… then there are other federal, state and private funds that come with requirements as to how they are spent.”
Funding dispute
The funding issue could affect districts across North Carolina where there are charter schools, said Ed Dunlap, executive director of the North Carolina School Boards Association.
And it is coming as school systems already face more state cuts.
“We are extremely concerned,” Dunlap said. “I think at a time when budgets are tight that any hemorrhaging of dollars away from the Board of Education is going to be harmful to the education of the children in that community.”
The issue is coming up again in the wake of two cases last year involving Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. Charter schools in that area won their case seeking more money from the school system.
Another lawsuit was filed earlier this year in Rutherford County. Buncombe County and Asheville schools are not a party to the lawsuit, but what happens there could affect the two systems.
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The Rutherford County case involves Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy, which sued the county school system over past funding.
“They (charter schools) are supposed to get a full and equal share of everything in the school system’s local current expense fund,” said Richard Vinroot, an attorney who represents Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy and also the local charter schools.
“In Rutherford County, they attempted to move money out of the fund that we thought needed to be shared with the charter schools,” he said.
The money for charter schools is supposed to be allotted on a per-pupil basis.
“The amount requested is based on how many students would normally be attending Asheville public schools (instead of the three charter schools),” said Susan Gottfried, executive director at Evergreen Community Charter School.
Vinroot said the courts have already ruled on these funding issues last year in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg cases.
“The cases are real clear,” he said.
But in the wake of those cases, the state authorized finance officers for local school systems to set up separate funds for restricted money.
Examples of money that can be included are More-at-Four funding, which is for preschool-age children and other “federal or other funds not intended for the general K-12 instructional population.”
Chris Campbell, who represents Rutherford County and Buncombe County Schools, said he is asking the court to take a look at charter school funding in light of this authorization for school systems to set up a restricted fund.
Another que stion is whether a school system can retroactively set aside money — that was used for specific programs — in a restricted fund, also known as Fund 8.
In the case of Asheville City school officials, they say in a statement it would be “inappropriate and perhaps unconstitutional,” to share funding “for purposes other than what the grants were intended.”
Examples include federal dollars earmarked for the system’s preschool program, grant money for the high school’s JROTC program and money for the Gates Foundation New Schools Project.
The charter schools do not provide preschool services and do not serve high school students, city school officials say.
It all could boil down to accounting procedures.
City schools believe charters schools are demanding more money to take advantage of a technicality in the interpretation of state law, Grady said in an e-mail.
City schools have paid charter schools $1.3 million during the three years in question, Grady said.
“We feel we have paid them fully. That’s our position,” she said.
The latest dispute over money does not involve the same funding that was at stake in 1999, when the Francine Delany New School for Children New School for Children sued to get a portion of the city school’s supplemental tax revenue and criminal fines and forfeitures.
The charter school won that case, and in 2003, city schools agreed to pay nearly $700,000.
Asheville City Schools Superintendent Allen Johnson said he doesn’t know where the money will come from if city schools must come up with more money for charter schools.&l t;br />
“If we were to have to pay that amount, it would create a hardship for our district,” Johnson said.
City schools are already facing a shortfall that could exceed $400,000 because of state budget cuts.
Both city and county school officials have approved agreements that give charter schools two additional years to file a lawsuit if the parties can’t reach an agreement.
Grady said city school officials are watching the Rutherford County case.
“I guess we wait and see what happens in the Rutherford case and what that result is and whether it is appealed and what outcome might come out of the Court of Appeals,” Grady said.