Utah charter school leaders request money

State charter school leaders want more than $2 million additional money for administrative costs, ongoing state funding for charter startup costs and to change a funding formula that will yield almost $300 more per student.

The charter school board has signed off on a number of legislative initiatives that would go before lawmakers in the coming session — the common thread being more money.

Because of the swift growth of charters, leaders want more funding to catch up with the increasing number of schools while preparing for an onslaught of new ones.

"The word has gotten out, and I think we are going to see a lot more — we need to be prepared from a funding standpoint," said Dave Moss, chairman of the state charter school board. "These are good initiatives. We're not asking for the moon, we're just asking for what we need to keep up."

Administrative costs are the biggest need.

"Charters operate as one school district and must perform district office functions like payroll, finances, reports and assessment," said Steve Winitzky, director of the Technical Assistance Project for Utah charter schools.

In 2003, the state started providing administrative costs to the schools based on charter enrollment. But charters had to split the money, and as enrollment increased, administrative funding decreased.

This year 36 charter schools will have $57,000 divided among them to underwrite administrative duties. However, nearly all schools have at least a half-time employee while some have as many of three full-time employees working on administrative tasks.

"That nowhere near covers administrative costs," Winitzky said.

The initiative would create a funding formula to boost administrative costs.

That would hike funding from $57,000 split among 36 schools to $2.4 million to divide among an estimated 53 schools that will be in operation in 2007.

"That is a significant increase, but it provides for realistic underwriting of district office administrative costs born by charter schools," Winitzky said.

John Broberg, state charter school director, said they also want changes in the local replacement funding formula that would give charters some $267 more per student.

Unlike school districts, charter schools can't bond or create revenue. They must rely on state and federal funding to run their schools while school districts get additional money from local property taxes. So the state kicks in replacement funding for charters in lieu of local money.

Currently schools get $1,051 per student in replacement money but the revised formula would yield $1,318 per student.