"It's kind of like they are backtracking a little bit — I think the state realized that as charters are growing it's becoming a pretty big bill and think they would like to spend money elsewhere," said Burns.

But Bigelow said the funding process will be much different than the old process, because in the past there wasn't a good clear-cut procedure for getting the funds from the local school district to a charter school.

"We have defined the process, which is the same process as when a public school student goes from one district to another," Bigelow said.

So basically, just as if a student left their home district for another, if a student leaves for a charter school the funding follows him, he said.

"Some see it as reasonable, some don't like it, but it seems to be a reasonable way to fund school students to ensure that the education they receive, from a financial standpoint, is essentially the same whether they go to a charter school or a local district school," Bigelow said. "This does not solve every problem, and there will still be refinements in the funding process, but this seems to be the next logical step."

"I suspect (education leaders) won't jump up and down at it, but I think they will say 'at least it's reasonable and we can live with it being reasonable,"' Bigelow said.

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E-mail: terickson@desnews.com

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