Parents are making plans for the next school year and more often than ever before they are making plans to send their children to alternative schools. Among the choices that parents have in schools today are charter schools. Not all charter schools are created equal and choosing the right one for you is imperative. Charter schools are not only created differently and focus on different things but are also funded differently.
Most charter schools rely on the attendance to get the funding. According to EdReform.com, “Charter schools are public schools. Like district public schools, they are funded according to enrollment (also called average daily attendance, or ADA), and receive funding from the district and the state according to the number of students attending.”
The amounts that these schools are funded differ greatly from state to state and from community to community. The national average is that charter schools are funded at about 60 percent of their district public school counterpart.
In addition, many charter schools do not receive any type of funding to cover the cost of getting a building or a facility in which to hold classes. Schools have to start out with some measure of capital. They need to secure a facility themselves in most cases.
Some states offer a measure of funding to new schools. Some startups are allowed to take over the space that is unused, but most new charter schools had to depend on independent ways to get their building. While new federal funding legislation offers some measure of support, still most charters have to start with little to no help, so the task of getting the building is a difficult one.