Individuals have been penning letters to newspapers across the state painting a false narrative that charter schools are somehow “stealing money from school districts” and are the root cause of their financial troubles. Quite frankly, this narrative is false. Public charter schools receive the same or less per-pupil funding as their resident school districts. When a student transfers from a traditional public school to a charter school, a portion of the money allocated to educate that child follows the child.

This year’s state budget was a windfall for traditional school districts, with the governor touting historic increases in state funding. At the same time, school districts and their surrogate special interest groups are advocating slashing funding to charter schools. Perhaps the real goal here is greed and an attempt to protect the traditional monopoly of public education and eliminate perceived competition posed by charter schools.

The latest strategy used by opposition groups is to attack lawmakers who do not pick and choose which students to serve but advocate for all public school students.

Pennsylvanians clearly want options in education and are no longer satisfied with the traditional public school monopoly, which is evident by the increase in charter school enrollment and the tens of thousands of students on charter school wait lists. Instead of defending the status quo, these groups should invest their time and energy advocating for all of Pennsylvania’s public school students, instead of propagating division and an us-versus-them culture.

Jim Smith

Bear Creek Township

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The writer is chief executive officer of Bear Creek Community Charter School.

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