Smaller class sizes, competitive teacher salaries, full-day kindergarten, specialized curriculum, and summer school. Charter-school funding helped make these possible for two local school districts.
But next year, Tanque Verde and Vail School Districts, along with most other districts that sponsored charters, will lose millions of dollars in extra funding.
A provision attached to the 2015 state budget prohibits school districts from sponsoring charters and dissolves those created after June 30, 2013. Nearly 60 schools statewide will be affected.
Stripped of their charter, public schools lose around $1,000 per student of state funding designated for charter schools.
The Vail School District expects a $2.3 million hole in its budget when three charter schools, Desert Willow Elementary and Old Vail and Rincon Vista middle schools, revert to traditional district schools.
The Tanque Verde Unified School District predicts a $340,000 loss when Tanque Verde Elementary is stripped of its charter.
The Goldwater Institute called the practice of converting district schools to charters a “money grab,” but school administrators contend the extra funding was used to maintain high-achieving schools.
“We thought, given the market, we were doing what the state was calling for in creating yet another option in the school and in this area,” said Tanque Verde Superintendent Doug Price.
Charter-school pioneers
Arizona lawmakers created the charter concept in 1994. Charter schools were meant to provide more academic choice and serve as alternatives to traditional public schools.
Unlike school districts, charter schools can’t pass budget overrides or dip into state school facilities funds to boost their budgets, so the state provides them with more base funding.
School districts that sponsored new charters or converted existing schools traded access to state money for transportation and construction in return for higher per-student funding.
The Vail School District, southeast of Tucson, was one of the first public school districts to open a charter school with Vail Charter High School in 1997, and it was also one of the first to convert existing district schools to charters.
“We are very, very strong advocates for choice, but providing choices costs money,” Superintendent Calvin Baker said.
Vail School District estimated the charter funding brings in an additional $1,100 per student in each of its seven charter schools.
Vail Academy and High School Principal Dennis Barger said the extra funds allow the school to keep classes small. He estimated high school classes average 21 students. By comparison, Sunnyside Unified School District’s freshman class sizes average around 28 students.
“I think the small, close-knit feel of our campus is a really big part of defining who we are as a school,” Barger said.
In other schools, charter funding is used to sponsor all-day kindergarten, environmental-focused curriculum, and in Old Vail Middle School the funds paid for upgrades to the science labs. All of Vail’s charter schools but one, Rincon Vista Middle School, received A ratings from the Arizona Department of Education last year.
Tanque Verde converted its largest elementary school, Tanque Verde Elementary, to a charter in 2013.
Charter dollars helped establish character and science education programs at the school, but the money also benefited the whole district, Price said.
The charter elementary paid the district for services such as bus use and food service, providing revenue that helped fund districtwide $1,000 teacher raises.
“They would have done it earlier if they had realized what they could gain,” Price said.
Tanque Verde was one of more than a dozen districts to convert its schools to charters in 2013.
The Joint Legislative Budget Committee estimated charter conversions could have cost the state $61 million by fiscal year 2016.
A 2015 budget amendment put an end to school district’s charter-school creation.
“Some districts started to think about using charters to get more money and cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars without providing the innovative services we want in the charter world,” said Sen. Kelli Ward, R-Lake Havasu City.
School district governing boards are now prohibited from granting new charters, and public schools that converted to charters after June 2013 will revert back to district schools.
Vail’s Governing Board approved the termination of the three school’s charters in January, but the district won’t process the paperwork until the summer, with the small hope the decision is reversed.
“Every year we lose dollars,” Baker said. “We don’t have a good picture of what the budget will look like next year, but we are expecting that we will have to make reductions.”
The district closed open enrollment for high school students last year, turning away dozens of prospective students who live outside district boundaries.
“If the ability to charter was not taken away from us then we would be looking at building additional space and paying for that space with those extra charter dollars,” Baker said.
Tanque Verde plans to make up part of the deficit with a budget override passed in November’s election.
“We are trying to make the best of assets we have and look for all those ways to support kids,” Price said. “If we need to reshuffle the deck of assets we have, we will do that.”
A dozen district-sponsored charter schools are exempt from the new law, including four in Vail, because they were created before June 2013. But even their days could be numbered.
Gov. Doug Ducey’s budget proposal calls for all district charter schools to be phased out.
“It’s to bring them into line with existing laws already passed and make sure schools are being treated equally,” Ducey spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said.
