Don't kill charter schools

One of the strongest arguments against private school vouchers was that public money shouldn't fund private choices, particularly when public charter schools offer school choice within the government education system.

What a difference a few years make.

Now that the voucher debate is in most people's rear-view mirror, 18 public charter schools face possible closure due to anticipated revenue shortfalls. The Utah State Office of Education has proposed to cut charter school funding by $270 per pupil. Charter schools already receive about $500 less than the state average for basic per-pupil funding. This cut could cripple this form of public school choice, charter advocates and educators say.

The Utah State Office of Education has a particularly unenviable job as it attempts to keep costs level despite an expected influx of some 14,700 students. Still, is the answer death by a thousand cuts to the charter-school movement?

Charter schools never have been the darlings of the mainstream public education community. Yet there are many charter school success stories. This innovation should be encouraged, not stifled while the state experiences a temporary economic downturn.

There is no clear-cut solution to this issue or, for that matter, to the dilemma lawmakers face balancing the 2010-11 budget during a significant revenue shortfall. Dipping into the state's Rainy Day funds is a given. So is raising the state tobacco tax. It remains to be seen if legislators will be willing to raise the state income tax, which is solely earmarked for the support of public schools and colleges, in order to keep class sizes at reasonable levels in K-12 education and tuition affordable for college students.

Charter schools are already something of a bargain for taxpayers. These public schools receive federal startup funding for the first three years, state funding and funding from school districts for each charter-school student residing in their boundaries. The latter has not set well with local school board members, who maintain that they do not want to provide funding to schools for which they have no direct oversight.

However, parents who send their children to charter schools reside somewhere. All pay property taxes whether they are billed directly or pay indirectly through their rent. They should enjoy some benefit of the property tax paid to local school districts.

Besides, charter school students are public school students, except that they receive their education in a different setting. Their schools shouldn't be the first to go as the state Office of Education seeks to develop its budget recommendations.