Dive Brief:

• Philadelphia charter schools are being told to expect cuts, as they are likely to owe the city's school district hundreds of dollars per student.
• The district estimates that it has overpaid charter schools for the students they serve and will begin paying them lower rates.
• Staff layoffs are not off the table, as the cuts could lower overall revenue at some charters by as much as 10%.

Dive Insight:

The incoming Trump administration, and its nomination of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, has shone a spotlight on the concept of school choice, which seeks to provide families with alternatives to public schools and the funding to make it possible. School choice proponents often cite charter schools as viable alternatives because of their independence from state and district policies.

However, as the case in Philadelphia shows, charter schools can be reliant on state and local funding to cover much of their expenses, and cuts and budget shortfalls impacting one can affect the other. While funding for charters vary by state (and can feature complex formulas), Pennsylvania, like many other states, allocates roughly the same amount per pupil to district schools and charters, minus the cost of expenditures like non-school programs reserved for district students.