Growing great public schools to catalyze broad transformation

• School districts working to improve student achievement and to comply with state and federal mandates need more high-performing schools right away.
• Parents in these districts need better school options for their children right away.
• Charter school expansion efficiently scales up high-performing schools in high-poverty areas, making them a critical partner for districts.
• Our public education funding system should enable growth and replication of good schools and closure of chronically low-performing schools.

The Facts: 2008 Charter School Performance

• 14 out of 19 middle charter schools and elementary charter schools exceed the host district average in percent of students at or above goal.
• Amistad High School in New Haven outperformed suburban districts like Trumbull, Greenwich and West Hartford on the 2008 CAPT.
• Public charter schools in Connecticut that are expanding are also the highest-performing.
  • 95 percent of new seats needed next year are at schools run by Achievement First and Jumoke Academy.
  • Collectively, these schools have garnered 30 spots on ConnCAN’s Top 10 lists over the past three years—10 percent of the total Top 10 placements statewide.

The Problem

• Funding Gap: Charter schools still receive less than 80 percent of the per-pupil funding of traditional public schools.
  • The gap between charter and traditional per-pupil funding has increased slightly since 2003, despite increases in the state budget line item for charter schools.
  • Charter schools cannot operate long-term with this funding deficit.
  • Charter school parents and students should not be penalized for choosing this particular kind of public school.
• Unfinished Grade Growth: New charter schools, which open with one or two grades apiece and add additional grades each year, require an annual legislative appropriation to fund natural grade growth. Charter school students in Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven would be stranded next year without this funding.

The Solution

• Close the gap in per-pupil funding between charter and traditional schools. This will mean in the short term Charter per-pupil funding should increase at a faster rate than traditional school funding until they are equal.
• Increase the charter line item in the state budget to account for natural grade growth in new charter schools.