Charter school funding bill voted down by House

A bill that would place some of the burden of funding charter schools back on the school districts failed the clear the House Monday.

HB278 thrilled neither charter schools nor traditional district schools but bill sponsor Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley said it was the most reasonable way to deal with funding the states swiftly growing charter schools.

Last summer Bigelow met with both sides of the issue — charters and school districts. And though both sides would be losing money he said most agreed that it was probably the best approach.

A 2006 audit of Utah charter schools recommended state leaders use the interim to take a look at how to improve charter funding while addressing a funding disparity between charter schools and traditional public schools.

In the 2007 legislative session that recommendation was made, and a committee, made up of charter school leaders, legislators and district chiefs, has been meeting for the past seven months.

HB278 would require school districts to provide an allocation of property tax revenues for each resident student attending a charter school — meaning the student's home-district funding would follow him to whatever school he chose to attend, even if it is located outside the district.

But since the bill failed to pass the House some charter leaders say legislators could likely appropriate local replacement funding once again to fund charters next year — if the measure is not brought back to the House floor.

Since 2004 charters have received local replacement money from the state in lieu of property taxes because, unlike school districts, charters do not have taxing authority. So the state kicks in that additional funding.

However, the bill would have required charter schools to go back to receiving their funding from school districts, something they were required to do before 2004. Some charter leaders say the old process tended to create an adversarial relationship between charters and school districts, and some fear those feelings will resurface.

But Bigelow claimed that since the money allocations would be done through the state office, charters would not be harmed by bad blood with the school districts.

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E-mail: terickson@desnews.com

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