BCT Editorial – 1/21/07

This page was last updated on January 21, 2007.

Time to pay up; Editorial; Beaver County Times; January 21, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The state Legislature created charter schools, and it’s time lawmakers took responsibility for funding them.”

[RWC] The Legislature also formed counties. Is it “time lawmakers took responsibility for funding them” as well?

“Whether you agree with the concept of charter schools is no longer the issue; they are here and more are coming. The state now has 117 in operation and dozens more in the planning stages.

“They provide unique educational opportunities for students, but the cost to taxpayers is steep: nearly $458 million last year, according to a Times study.”

[RWC] Pay close attention at the end of this editorial and you’ll find the “tolerant” things the editorial said so far about charter schools was only lip service.

“The state’s funding formula has been relatively simple: The money follows the child. If a district’s cost to educate a student is $5,000 per year, the district pays that amount to the charter school. But moving students - and their tuition money - does not reduce the district’s costs by the same amount.

“The result? Districts are raising taxes to cover increasing charter school cots [sic].”

[RWC] How does that explain districts raising taxes during enrollment declines before charter schools came on the scene? Remember, the increasing prices we pay for education have been outstripping the general inflation rate for decades.

“That has to stop. The state must assume the funding of charter schools and remove the burden from local taxpayers.”

[RWC] If you’re a regular reader of Times editorials and you’ve been keeping track, you probably noticed the Times solution of choice – almost regardless of the financial problem – is to “remove the burden from local taxpayers” and dump it on commonwealth and/or federal taxpayers. It’s like a carpenter whose toolbox contains only a hammer.

“Lawmakers will start paying attention to the charter school issue when they are forced to vote on the funding component in the annual budget.”

[RWC] Translation: Lawmakers will be more likely to abolish charter schools if they have to raise commonwealth taxes, and that’s what we (the Times) want.

Proponents of the current public school system would like nothing more than to abolish competition. That’s why we don’t have a voucher system allowing parents to pick their kids’ schools.