Concern over charter schools have once again been drawn into the public eye, but not for reasons that most are used to.
Due to the house failing to pass a budget in the beginning of April, the New Hampshire Alliance for Public Charter Schools sent out a news letter on April 14, highlighting the legislation that would have increased aid to pupils in charter schools in the state and the fact that it was ignored due to the failing budget.
The house budget, failing for the first time since the 1960’s, was seemingly caused by a desire by Republicans to make major cuts to the budget and a lack of democratic support due to a lack of funding to drug and alcohol abuse relief, no full-day kindergarten and changes in benefits for retired state employees. It was defeated 177-169, minus 32 Republican holdouts, and the unaffected budget will pass onto the senate.
As a result, no changes will be made to the funding going towards charter school students. Under current law, each student from 1 to 12 grade will receive $6,735.82, but under the now-defeated legislation, funding per student would increase by $250 by 2018 and $350 the following year.
According to the news letter, Senate President Chuck Morse has been a long-time champion for charter schools and hopes to continue on the budget and working on funding towards these schools.
The news letter also noted that Governor Sununu’s budget proposal also featured a large increase in funds towards student aid. The proposal would discontinue the static funding formula currently used for funding, instead having the aid amounts at 48.5% for 2018 and gradually rising to 50% in 2019, leading to an increase of over $950 per student.
Charter schools have been a point of controversy for many people over the last couple of years. The schools are independently run, publically funded operations that are sometimes operated by for-profit companies. Many issues have been raised over the independent nature of the schools when it comes to hiring unionized teachers and not having to take orders from local school districts, not to mention inconsistent data concerning testing scores and performance. None the less, enrollment has increased to 2.5 million students nationwide since 2014.
The state budget is set to be finalized by June, with the issue of charter school funding hanging in the air until then.