“The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is disappointed that, in a case where equity for all Oklahoma public school students is at stake, two school boards have decided that students who attend public charter schools are not deserving of equal funding.
“Charter school students are public school students, plain and simple. Consider this scenario: A family pays taxes and sends their child to the local public school of their choice, and yet their taxes that are earmarked for public education never make it to their child’s school. Instead, their child’s education is funded at a lesser level simply because of the structure of their public school. It is counterintuitive, and yet that is what the Oklahoma City and Tulsa school boards would like to see.
“The bottom line is that all public school students, whether they attend a charter or district school, deserve funding at equitable levels. For school boards representing public school students to stand in the way of equity is worrisome and, quite frankly, disappointing.”
About Public Charter Schools
Public charter schools are independent, public, and tuition-free schools that are given the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. Since 2010, many research studies have found that students in charter schools do better in school than their traditional school peers. For example, one study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University found that charter schools do a better job teaching low income students, minority students, and students who are still learning English than traditional schools. Separate studies by the Center on Reinventing Public Education and Mathematica Policy Research have found that charter school students are more likely to graduate from high school, go on to college, stay in college and have higher earnings in early adulthood.
About the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the public charter school movement. Our mission is to lead public education to unprecedented levels of academic achievement by fostering a strong charter sector. For more information, please visit www.publiccharters.org.
