STATE LAW FORCING CANTON TAXPAYERS TO SUBSIDIZE POOR-PERFORMING CHARTERS
State revenues aren’t enough to cover the full cost of sending Canton students to charters.

COLUMBUS – Local taxpayers in Canton 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 Canton schools lost $8.3 million 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 the Canton schools lost $8.3 million to charter schools in the last school year. This means that Canton school students receive $170 less per student every year as a result. Canton local taxpayers also had to come up with $1.6 million to make up for the insufficient amount of state revenue that goes to area-charter schools, nearly all of which went goes to charters that performed the same or worse than the local school district on the state report card.

If state lawmakers agree to adopt the new state budget proposed by the Governor, Canton would lose an additional $370,000 to charter 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