Who owns public schools

The gap may have seemed reasonable at first. Charters were new and untried, and most were chartered for a term of five years, sometimes less. So even friendly policymakers resisted giving them the keys to funding instruments traditionally used by districts to build and maintain impressive, permanent structures. For a few years, as charters sprung up in storefronts and church basements, the policy almost seemed plausible see sidebar.

Today, a mere nuisance has burgeoned into the foremost hurdle to the rapid expansion of high-quality charter schools. As the number of students entering charters has grown steadily year by year, comprising in approximately 4. Another 18 school districts enroll more than 20 percent of public school students in charter schools see Figure 1. Charter school students represent at least 10 percent of overall enrollment in nearly school districts. And while states deliver straightforward capital support to traditional school districts, their support for charter facilities is often halfhearted and ineffective.

Only Colorado has done so at scale see Table 1. The denial of facilities funding would be less problematic if charter schools had routine access to existing buildings that had been built for public school use and already paid for with tax dollars. Under such legacy laws, traditional districts remain the sole proprietor, able to make fairly arbitrary decisions about who else might benefit from these public goods.

Documented examples of misalignment between student needs and building availability are legion. Consider only a few of the most celebrated cases on record:. Yet the district refused sales to charter schools—on the grounds that they would compete with the district for students.

Louis Public Schools approved terms on the sale of the old Hodgen Elementary School building that included a year deed restriction prohibiting leasing of the building to medical clinics, taverns, adult entertainment facilities, and…charter schools. The restriction was removed by the board in after the measure was held up to well-deserved ridicule. Those groups in competition are defined as entities that serve the same purpose of the District at the same age level, i.

Legal End Runs. Even when there is plain statutory language giving charter schools a share of district building stock, it is too often interpreted away or just ignored. In Ohio, state law gives charter schools first dibs on shuttered school buildings. When the District of Columbia School Reform Act was passed by Congress in , it included language providing that charter schools should have access to surplus public-school buildings.

A succession of D. The D. Council subsequently strengthened the guarantee, providing charters the right of first offer on sales and leases. But there remains a lack of transparency, and much of the surplus inventory is not made available to charter schools. In practice, however, the Washington, D. California is the only state that requires, as a matter of law, provision of adequate school facilities for every charter school authorized.

Because there is very little federal oversight, curricula in one state can differ from those in other states. Students generally go to the public school in the district in which they live; however, with the growth of charter and magnet schools, students are now being offered more options.

Public schools generally accept everyone who wants to go there, regardless of their income or skill level. Spending on elementary and secondary school students has risen dramatically throughout the past several decades. Property taxes pay for most of the cost of public schools. Although public schools get a very small percentage of their funding from donations and parent and student fundraising efforts, by far the greatest proportion of the money comes from state and local governments.

The federal government contributes less than 10 percent of the cost. Whereas public schools are funded and run by local governments, private schools are funded, owned and operated by private organizations—for example, religious institutions. Some school districts give principals wide latitude to shape campus programs.

School site councils provide parents with avenues to share perspectives on how their local schools are run. Parent teacher groups often provide financial support and funnel volunteer help to districts. School funding breaks into several major pieces. Operating funds are administered by the state and include state dollars, local property taxes and federal money. Because the state government is highly involved in the public education process, members of the general public can also have their voice in education when they head to the election booth.

Many residents of a state may base at least a portion of their voting decisions on the current state of public education in their state. However, individuals who want their opinions heard by those involved in the decision-making process are often better off airing their views with the local school board. Finally, schools are governed locally by school boards responsible for overseeing a specific school district. According to State University , school boards have a long history of governing public schools that dates back nearly one century.

In most areas, these boards are elected by the general public. However, a few areas of the country, including Chicago, give the mayor of the city authority to appoint the school board, taking governance decisions out of the hands of parents and teachers, and giving it to the local government.