charter schools

After doing some preliminary research on the use of property taxes to fund public schools I found this is a very compelling issue not only in Indiana but around the country. However, I did not feel there was enough accessible material out there to write a term paper on the subject. I have decided to switch the topic of my term paper to charter schools. If there is enough material, I would like to narrow my focus to the funding of charter schools since school finance is my area of interest.
Charter schools naturally deal with choice. It gives children who attend underperforming schools the option of attending a publicly funded charter school which may have a different approach to teaching. Proponents argue that by providing choice charter schools will make all schools better because they create competition between public schools and charter schools.
Charter schools pose an issue of quality. Does the performance of children at charter schools warrant the use of public funds to finance them? A report by Caroline Hoxby on New York City charter schools suggests they do. This report can be found at http://www.nber.org/~schools/charterschoolseval/how_NYC_charter_schools_affect_achievement_sept2009.pdf.
If charter schools are improving the education of some children, then a question of equity comes into play. Charter schools argue that they are not receiving the same level of funding as public schools (about 21% less nation wide) and they deserve equal funding since they are also a public entity. There are two good reports on this issue of funding equity that can be found at http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v10n34.html and http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/Charter%20School%20Funding%202005%20FINAL.pdf. The second report is 153 pages so it needs to be perused to decide what is useful in it.
Using public funds to pay for charter schools also brings forward an issue of efficiency. Public school superintendents argue that charter schools are draining their corporations’ funds in a way that limits their capability to be competitive especially in urban districts where there is a large concentration of charter schools. There are several articles in the Indianapolis Star in which Indianapolis School Superintendent Eugene White express this concern. Overall, charter schools present a broad array of issues in which funding seems to be a prevalent one. I hope to write my paper on charter schools with a focus on funding.