OKPOLICY.ORG
Recently, the House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee — chaired by Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid — conducted an interim study looking at potential funding and the authorization process for charter school facilities in Oklahoma. The committee was told demand for charter schools exceeds availability in the state — and that the most frequent cause for slower growth of charter schools is lack of funding for facilities and the authorization process.
Oklahoma was an early adopter of charter schools with the passage of the Oklahoma Charter School Act in 1999. Charter schools are non-selective, tuition-free public schools with greater flexibility and autonomy than regular public schools in exchange for increased oversight and accountability.
In addition to annual accreditation by the Oklahoma State Department of Education, charter schools are evaluated annually by their authorizers on governance, finance, and student outcomes. To become a charter school, the school must be authorized by its local school district, an accredited institution of higher education, or the State Charter School Board.
The demographics of the Oklahoma charter school population is interesting and somewhat surprising to me. Only 15 percent of students are white, with 57.8 percent Hispanic, 17.3 percent Black, 2.4 percent American Indian, 1.3 percent Asian American, and 6 percent two or more races; 82 percent are economically disadvantaged, with 12 percent receiving special education.
The issue with charter school funding is that, although they receive funding through the state aid formula, charter schools do not receive a share of local property taxes nor are they eligible to share in the proceeds of bond issues approved by voters for the regular schools. Local school districts can give or lease unused school buildings to the charter schools, but the school itself must pay for any needed changes or refurbishing.
Several examples of ways to help finance charter school facilities were presented in the study, including various forms of tax-exempt borrowing or public sharing in the cost of financing.
While it wasn’t mentioned in the study, I suspect it would not be possible to share local property taxes with charter school facilities without a constitutional amendment due to prohibitions from Section X-15 of the Oklahoma Constitution. It states that the credit of the State shall not be given, pledged, or loaned to any individual, company, corporation, or association, municipality, or political subdivision of the state, nor shall the state become an owner or stockholder in, nor make donation by gift, subscription to stock, by tax, or otherwise, to any company, association, or corporation.
I first learned about charter schools in the late 1980s when Oklahoma was in the throws of the oil bust and economic downturn. Oklahoma public education had been chronically underfunded as it is today, and public schools were being criticized. To me, at the time, charter schools proponents seemed to be blaming the regular public schools for their shortcomings and offering charter schools as the solution without having to provide more funding.
It seemed to be just a way to avoid facing the underfunding problem which, in my view, was — and still is — the primary cause of underperforming schools. But the interim study told me I may need to re-evaluate my biases.
The committee also looked for ways to streamline the authorization process for charter schools.
Part of the success of representative democracy is that when we elect our representatives, they bring to public service their background, skills, education, and interests. Rep. Rob Hall, who requested the study, attended the University of Tulsa where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering. With his background in engineering and an interest in education, he operates an ACT/SAT/PSAT tutoring company.
Good for him for his efforts to investigate ways to solve the funding issues for charter school facilities. I hope he will also look for ways to not just move money around, but to generate sufficient funding for both regular public schools and charter schools.
