charter school funding of buildings

One issue that stands out about charter school funding is that facilities assistance is not given to charter schools. Charter schools are not allotted funds specifically for facility purchase, lease, or maintenance. They have to use money from their per pupil allotment to pay these costs. In traditional schools per pupil allotments are used for instructional purposes and the schools use bond issues and tax revenue from the capital projects fund to pay for their physical plant. Charter schools legally do not have this means to raise funds for their buildings. A report from the Center for Education Reform at http://www.edreform.com/_upload/CER-CSFundingGap2005.pdf details this gap in charter school funding.
This limit on charter school funding raises issues of equity and quality. If charter schools are not given the means to raise funds for their physical plant that traditional public schools are, they are at a disadvantage in providing and maintaining buildings for their students. The Supreme Court has ruled that charters are public schools so they should have a legal means to raise capital funs just like traditional schools. This funding issue also is an issue of quality. If charter schools cannot afford to maintain their buildings or renovate the old buildings that they can afford to purchase to use as schools, they can be unsafe for children to attend. This funding gap has not gone unnoticed. In North Carolina a lawsuit is being filed on behalf of 7 charter schools arguing that the charter schools be able to request construction funding. Details of the case can be found at http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090921/POLITICS/90921035.
In some areas of the country such as the District of Columbia, public schools claim that charters have unfair funding advantage. This viewpoint can be found at http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:Y8wBHBQ078IJ:www.saveourschoolsdc.org/pdf/ChartersSchools_vs_PublicSchools.pdf+charter+schools+vs+public+schools&hl=en&sig=AFQjCNGFWWOY-zLjHvCsOGF2S_hqwjhHSg. According to this comparison by Save Our Schools DC, charter schools get the same per pupil funding agreement that the DC public schools get and a per capita facilities allowance of nearly $2400 per student that is not determined by physical plant expenses resulting in a windfall. It will be interesting to sort out all of this out as I do my research. I have a feeling the DC charter schools get additional funding because they are so close the Washington, DC political machine.