WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools joined other education advocacy organizations to file an amicus brief on Friday, January 16 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in support of the DC Association of Chartered Public Schools funding equity lawsuit.
The DC Association of Chartered Public Schools filed a complaint against the District of Columbia on July 30 of last year, asserting the city has failed to provide equal funding to public charter and traditional public schools. The School Reform Act, enacted in 1995, requires the city to provide equal operating funds to both public charter and traditional public schools.
In the brief, the groups argue that the city has consistently violated the uniform funding requirement in the Act, depriving D.C. public charter schools of equivalent per-student funding.
“Funding equity remains an unresolved issue for public charter schools throughout the country. Charter schools in the District of Columbia are required to be funded in the same manner as traditional public schools. Sadly, the city has failed to follow the law,” said Nina Rees, president and CEO at the National Alliance. “Time and again, charter schools have demonstrated a strong record of success and are in high demand, but they continue to remain underfunded.”
Public charter schools in Washington D.C. were created under the School Reform Act, and to support their success Congress provided them with the same funding formula as that of DC Public Schools. However, since 2008, the annual underfunding of charter schools has run between $75 and $125 million, creating a deficit of $770 million, according to the lawsuit that was filed on July 30 of last year.
For the last nine years, students in D.C. charter schools have outperformed DCPS students in math and reading on the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System, the annual standardized test given to all students in public schools. In addition to that, Charter schools in D.C. serve 80 percent of economically disadvantaged students compared to 66 percent at DCPS.
“There is strong evidence that D.C. charter schools are meeting the goals envisioned by the School Reform Act,” said Rees. “We see no reason for the city’s failure to comply with the existing law and ensure fair, uniform funding for all of D.C.s public school students.”
The National Alliance filed the brief along with The Black Alliance for Educational Options, The Center for Education Reform and Friends of Choice in Urban Schools.
About Public Charter Schools
Public charter schools are independent, public, and tuition-free schools that are given the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. Since 2010, many independent research studies have found that students in charter schools do better in school than their traditional school peers. For example, one study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University found that charter schools do a better job teaching low income students, minority students, and students who are still learning English than traditional schools. Separate studies by the Center on Reinventing Public Education and Mathematica Policy Research have found that charter school students are more likely to graduate from high school, go on to college, stay in college and have higher earnings in early adulthood.
About the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the public charter school movement. Our mission is to lead public education to unprecedented levels of academic achievement by fostering a strong charter sector. For more information, please visit our website at www.publiccharters.org.
