Op/Ed: Indianapolis has more work to do to fund public schools equitably
As students in Indianapolis and across the country reel from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a lot of conversation about the importance of students receiving the education funding they need. By March 2021, the federal government committed an unprecedented $190 billion in extra funds to public schools, of which Indianapolis has received over $200 million. But by most measures, students are still far behind their pre-pandemic performance.
This all raises a critical question: Are students getting the resources they need to put pandemic learning loss in their rearview mirror and motor ahead to a successful life?
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Unfortunately, for Indianapolis students, the answer depends on what kind of public school they attend. Since 2003, researchers at the University of Arkansas, including one of us writing this opinion article (Patrick J. Wolf), have been studying how charter schools in major US cities are funded relative to traditional public schools. And in their newest report recently released the researchers found that in the 2019-20 school year Indianapolis charter schools received $7,863 less per-pupil funding than traditional public schools. That means that if a student chooses to attend a charter school, they, on average, sacrifice 43% of their funding.
This research shows that the recent increases to charter funding in the state budget — including additional capital grants, sharing of property tax revenue and access to referendum funding — were necessary, but not sufficient. If policymakers are serious about giving all public-school students the resources they need, they should build on this progress and continue to work to close this gap.
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The University of Arkansas team reviewed official school district and state budget documents to capture every dollar flowing to schools, including local, state, federal, nonpublic and in-kind services. Across all of the cities studied, they found that charter schools received, on average, 30% less funding—$7,205 less per student—than their traditional public-school counterparts. This charter school funding gap has been fairly stable in recent years. For instance, in the 2017-18 school year the gap was 33% and in 2015-16 it was 30%.
One might assume that this gap is explained by differences in student need — that charter schools serve fewer students who require additional resources, including students experiencing poverty, English language learners and special education students. But when the research team controlled for student need, a sizable gap remained.
In Indianapolis, there are several contributors to the gap. Indianapolis charter schools received $0 of local funding, creating a disparity of $7,937 per pupil just from local dollars. They also received $933 less per-pupil of federal funding. While they received more state and nonpublic funding than their district counterparts, it was not enough to close the gap. As part of the report, the researchers assigned grades on charter school funding equity to each of the 18 cities on an A-F scale. Indianapolis earned an “F.” Clearly, there is a need to improve.
The ultimate goal is not funding but better outcomes for students. And what’s remarkable is that, despite this funding inequity, charter schools are performing better than traditional public schools. According to recent research from Stanford University, charter school students had reading and math gains that exceeded their peers in the traditional public school they would have attended. Black and Hispanic students and students experiencing poverty had particularly large gains. That is also the case in many charter schools in Indianapolis. For instance, Tindley Accelerated Schools maintains a 100% college acceptance rate for its graduates.
Other research has found that, relative to similar students in traditional public schools, charter school students graduate high school at higher rates, enroll in college at higher rates and have better behavioral outcomes.
Research also indicates that when traditional public schools face additional charter school competition, their students achieve better outcomes. This competitive effect is especially strong in urban areas with large concentrations of Black and Hispanic students and students in poverty.
We should all agree that our public education system ought to give every student, regardless of the type of school they attend, resources they need to have a great education and reach their potential. This research shows that Indianapolis has significant work yet to do to equitably fund its public charter schools.
Patrick J. Wolf is a distinguished professor of education policy at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Marty Lueken is director of the Fiscal Research and Education Center at the Indianapolis-based EdChoice, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to advance educational freedom and choice for all students as a pathway to successful lives and a stronger society.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis has more work to do to fund public schools equitably
