Education

Unequal Funding Between Arizona District and Charter Schools Legal, Court Rules

By Arianna Prothero — November 19, 2014 1 min read
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An Arizona appeals court has ruled that the state’s charter schools aren’t owed the same amount of money that district schools receive, according to the Associated Press.

A group of charter school parents claimed the funding formula was unconstitutional in part because the state is supposed to provide a “general and uniform public schools system.”

But the appeals court agreed with a county superior court judge’s decision that the funding gap between the two types of public schools was legal, in part because there are significant differences between the two sectors and charter school students can still choose to attend a district school.

An attorney for the parents told the Arizona Daily Star that the parents plan to appeal to the state’s Supreme Court.

The funding gap between charters and regular schools is also the subject of a lawsuit in New York. In that suit, a group of parents from Buffalo and Rochester are arguing that charter school students receive as little as three-fifths of the per pupil funding that their district counterparts receive, disproportionately affecting children of color and those from lower-income families.

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A version of this news article first appeared in the Charters & Choice blog.