COMMENTARY: Charter schools deserve fair funding

I would be encouraged by Gov. Chris Christie’s words from his February budget address if I didn’t look at the facts. But as the governor himself said in his address, “facts are a stubborn thing.” So let’s look at our case study of fair funding of charter schools.

Compass Academy Charter School is a K-5 school operating in Vineland in Cumberland County, the county with the highest illiteracy rate, the second highest unemployment rate, and the highest poverty rate in the state.

MORE COVERAGE:  Compass Academy students visit Spring Oak residents

We do amazing things at our school, where we teach children about how they learn and help them develop themselves as accomplished learners and individuals to take in the world around them and respond appropriately. These students experience great personal growth as children and as learners.

We do this through a research-based, innovative, trademarked, advanced learning system called the Let Me Learn Process.

Every month we hold “Making Sense Days” — taking students out of the classroom to learning stations where they use all of their senses to explore new or previously learned content and allow students to examine the topics within a real world context.

We also engage students in monthlong service learning projects to connect them to their community and celebrate their work once a month.

While we seek to open the world of learning to our students, they do not see the financial struggle the school faces with the decreasing per-pupil funding, and funds that could go to the school but are withheld by the sending districts.

At the heart of the matter is one simple fact: All 150 students at Compass Academy who live in Vineland are counted in the Vineland Public Schools population. This means all of the per-pupil funding that Vineland receives is increased by 150 students who Vineland Public Schools does not educate. This is key.

From 2013 to 2016, Compass Academy’s base per-pupil rate of state aid has been $7,045 (2013), $6,884, $6,485 and $6,433 (2016).

In the same years, Vineland Public Schools’ per-pupil rate in state aid has been $9,536, $9,651, $9,651 and $9,721. How is this fair? How is it students in the same geographic and economic area are funded not only at two very disparate levels, but that gap continues to grow each year?

By state law, charter schools are to receive 90 percent of the base per-pupil state aid. This school year, Compass Academy is receiving 68 percent of the base per-pupil rate. If the Department of Education truly funded us at 90 percent of Vineland’s state aid rate, Compass Academy would receive $8,686 for each Vineland student instead of $6,485 — that is $330,150 in funding we should be receiving, but that Vineland Public Schools get to keep instead.

Adding insult to injury, traditional public schools, and Vineland in particular, receive aid for students it does not educate or transport. Vineland, like other districts, receives money for transportation ($4.2 million), PARCC readiness ($100,000) and student growth ($100,000). This additional funding increases its per-pupil amount from $9,651 to $10,139.

And since Vineland Public Schools count Compass Academy students in their census, that is $73,200 it gets to keep and never pass on to Compass Academy.

While the first two examples demonstrate how grossly unfair charter-school funding is, the tool that allows the greatest funding slight-of-hand is adjustment aid. Since adjustment aid is not included in the education funding formula, it is distributed by the Legislature — resulting in additional funding going to the best politically connected school districts.

This is the biggest pot of money that is unavailable to (but not prohibited from) charter schools and this is the biggest source of the funding gap.

What does this mean for Compass Academy? What does it mean for Vineland? For Vineland Public Schools, adjustment aid is an additional $34.4 million this school year. That is $3,713 in additional money per pupil — raising the district’s per-pupil funding from $10,139 to $13,852. While charter schools are not prohibited from receiving this aid, school districts are not mandated to pass that funding along either.

So Vineland counts Compass Academy’s 150 students in its calculations when seeking adjustment aid, but never needs to actually pass that on. That is $556,950 in pure profit for Vineland.

When you add all of the state aid together (base per-pupil with all the other funds mentioned), Vineland receives $13,852 for each student, but only has to pass on $6,485 to Compass Academy. That means Vineland keeps $7,367 per pupil for each of the 150 students it claims.

That comes out to $1,175,037 — pretending that district schools educate them but never having to go to the expense. When the facts are laid out there, that traditional public school is taking money away from our public charter school, not the other way around.

Even as the worst-funded charter school in the entire state, Compass Academy Charter School does amazing work improving the lives of the children of Vineland and Cumberland County. We have a teaching staff of new and more experienced teachers.

We will continue to live our vision and mission; we will continue to equip students to understand themselves as learners and use this knowledge with intention; we will continue to develop their potential to achieve within their families, school, the workplace and the greater community.

But as the governor said in his February budget address, “facts are a stubborn thing,” and even as we move forward, we know unequivocally that the financial challenge Compass Academy faces is an issue of funding fairness and justice, not only for its students, but for each public school student in Cumberland County and New Jersey.

Joel T. Johnston is lead founder of Compass Academy Charter School in Vineland.