September 12, 2023

Contact:
Alex Molnar: (480) 797-7261, nepc.molnar@gmail.com
Mark Weber: (908) 358-5828, mark.weber@rutgers.edu

Disregard Those Repeated Claims of Purported Funding Disparities Harming Charters

Key Takeaway: Research quality is key when investigating the differences between charter and district public school finances, explains new policy memo.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI (September 12, 2023) - Over the past decade, pro-charter organizations have published a series of reports claiming that funding disparities put charter schools at a disadvantage compared to public schools run by school districts. However, those conclusions are invariably incorrect due to flawed research methods.

In a policy memo released today by NEPC, Evaluating Research That Alleges Funding Disparities Between Charter and District Schools, Mark Weber of Rutgers University and the New Jersey Policy Perspective uses the latest "charter school funding inequity" report to illustrate these fundamental research flaws, thus providing a guide for stakeholders to evaluate the accuracy and transparency of related research.

Although the faulty methods used to support the "underfunded charter schools" claims have been repeatedly pointed out by third-party reviewers, there appears to be little willingness among the charter advocacy organizations to deviate from those methods. These problems include inadequate documentation of data, misunderstanding of financial transfers, invalid conflation of individual schools and school districts as units of analysis, invalid comparisons of student populations, invalid comparisons of the functions of charter and district public schools, unaccounted-for charter revenues, and neglect of the literature on charter school finances.

The latest of the advocacy reports, Charter School Funding Disparities: Los Angeles, California, from the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, asserts that traditional public schools in Los Angeles (LAUSD) "have consistently received more funding per pupil than charter schools in LAUSD-anywhere from 22 to 40 percent more." Weber uses an examination of this report and these claims to illustrate the problems with these analyses and to stress the importance of sound policymaking that serves all students equitably.

Due to charter schools' substantial expansion in recent years, Weber also points out the importance of understanding and flagging such deceptive policy research. Redirecting additional funding to charters based on advocacy reports using unreliable data and flawed methods may have adverse effects on other schools and state budgets.

Find Evaluating Research That Alleges Funding Disparities Between Charter and District Schools, by Mark Weber, at:
https://www.greatlakescenter.org/

This policy memo was made possible in part by the support of the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice (greatlakescenter.org).

The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), a university research center housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, sponsors research, produces policy briefs, and publishes expert third-party reviews of think tank reports. NEPC publications are written in accessible language and are intended for a broad audience that includes academic experts, policymakers, the media, and the general public. Our mission is to provide high-quality information in support of democratic deliberation about education policy. We are guided by the belief that the democratic governance of public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence and support a multiracial society that is inclusive, kind, and just. Visit us at: http://nepc.colorado.edu

About The Great Lakes Center
The mission of the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice is to support and disseminate high quality research and reviews of research for the purpose of informing education policy and to develop research-based resources for use by those who advocate for education reform. Visit the Great Lakes Center Web Site at: https://www.greatlakescenter.org. Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/greatlakescent. Find us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/GreatLakesCenter.

- ### -

The mission of the Great Lakes Center for Education Research & Practice is to support and disseminate high quality research and reviews of research for the purpose of informing education policy and to develop research-based resources for use by those who advocate for education reform.

Visit the Great Lakes Center website at https://www.greatlakescenter.org/