City Schools believes that all students deserve fairly funded schools, regardless of their background or the neighborhood they live in. Unfortunately, the Maryland Alliance of Public Charter Schools disagrees.
Here’s the truth: Charter schools in Baltimore City and across Maryland are not under threat of mass closure.
Students and families who attend them are not at risk. Together, we can keep it that way-but only if all schools contribute fairly.
The Maryland Alliance of Public Charter Schools, a trade group that does not represent Baltimore families nor all charter schools, is pushing for changes to MSDE’s draft charter school funding regulation that threaten public education.
Their version of "equity" benefits charter schools at the expense of traditional school students. Here's how their proposal would create unfair advantages:
Dodging special education expenses - They propose passing the costs of educating some of our most vulnerable students on to traditional school students without paying their fair share.
Free access to districtwide services - While traditional schools pay for essential services like payroll, teacher recruitment, legal support, and school police, the Alliance wants charters to access these for free – at the expense of traditional school students.
Shifting public facility dollars to private facilities - They want public dollars to subsidize charter facilities in districts where charters choose private facilities over public ones, contributing to the vacant school buildings across the city.
Money grab – They propose that charter schools should be able to receive 98 percent of the funding, leaving traditional schools to bear the costs of charter schools.
That's not fairness. That's an imbalance.
The Alliance aims to undermine the intent of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which is that schools should be funded based on the needs of their students. Let's stand up for a funding system that supports all students. Learn more and get the facts: baltimorecityschools.org/page/charter-funding-update