STATE LAW FORCING ATHENS TAXPAYERS TO SUBSIDIZE POOR-PERFORMING CHARTERS
Athens students to lose an additional 3.6 percent to charters under proposed budget

COLUMBUS – Local taxpayers in Athens are being forced to subsidize payments for students who attend charter schools, many of them with poor academic records, according to data compiled by the Ohio Charter School Accountability Project. The data, which can be found at dev-oea-kyc.pantheonsite.io, shows that Athens Schools lost $552,343 to charter schools last school year and local tax dollars are being used to subsidize a portion of the cost of sending students to charter schools.

“State law is supposed to prevent local tax dollars from going to charter schools, but a loophole is forcing school districts to subsidize charter schools often at a higher per-pupil rate,” said Innovation Ohio Policy Fellow Stephen Dyer. “It’s time to re-examine state law, particularly given the burden on local taxpayers and the poor performance of so many charter schools in Ohio.”

The data shows that Athens schools lost $552,343 to charter schools last year. Most of that is state aid that would otherwise go to the local public schools. This means that Athens-school students receive $133 less per pupil as a result. Because the state funding formula is insufficient to cover the full cost of sending students to charters, Athens local taxpayers have to subsidize charter schools by $313,000 to make up the difference. Under the current budget proposal, Athens students will lose an additional 3.6 percent more to charter schools. Additional findings show that all of the money from Athens goes to charter schools that perform worse than local public schools.

“Understanding local impacts such as these is exactly why we launched the Know Your Charter website and the importance of having a greater understanding of how Ohio charter schools are operating and being funded,” said Ohio Education Association President Becky Higgins. “In this case, we are shedding light on part of the state mandate for funding charter schools that has received too little attention – namely, the unfair burden it places on local communities.”

The Ohio Charter School Accountability Project is a joint venture of the Ohio Education Association and Innovation Ohio. The Ohio Education Association represents more than 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities. Innovation Ohio is a progressive think tank headquartered in Columbus. For more information, please visit: www.KnowYourCharter.com.

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Media Contact: Keary McCarthy, 614-425-9163