Charter school equity supplement increased to $650 per pupil and charter school facilities payments increased to $1000 in HB33. These provisions will enrich the charter for-profit operators.
The charter school lobby has been successful in expanding basic per pupil funding. Additionally, charter schools will receive $650 per pupil per year in “equity supplement”. This means that for-profit charter school operators will be able to add $650 per pupil each year to their profit margin. Taxpayers, via this provision in HB33, are forced to enrich charter operators.
Charter schools will receive $1000 per pupil each year for school facilities. This will be a real boost for those charter operators that operate real estate companies entangled with their “school” operations budget.
Online charters will receive $25 per pupil for having no student facilities! What a travesty!
Early in the charter school movement, advocates adamantly promised that exempting charters from numerous regulations and laws could provide students higher quality education with less revenue. Immediately thereafter, the charter advocates began a long-range, well-funded campaign to expand funding. State legislators and governors, not familiar with the original promise, complied with the whining and carping of advocates about charters being underfunded. State officials ignored the corruptions and insane profits within the charter industry and threw money at this prodigal education option.
The Ohio Constitution requires a single system of common schools. State officials have created two additional arrangements—privately-operated, publicly-funded charters and publicly-funded private schools via direct state payments and vouchers.
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