BOULDER, CO (October 11, 2017) – Charter School Funding: Inequity in New York City, authored by Larry D. Maloney and Patrick J. Wolf, and released by the University of Arkansas, concludes that charter schools in New York City are not fairly funded, in comparison to district schools. The report asserts that this inequity is especially big for charter schools that are not co-located in public schools.

Professor Clive Belfield of Queens College, City University of New York, reviewed the report and raised several concerns. Perhaps most importantly, the report simply does not attempt a rigorous comparison of charters to non-charter schools. It assumes that any differences in student characteristics across charter and district schools are trivial and that raw, unadjusted funding amounts are sufficient for assessing fairness.

Professor Belfield also notes that the report fails to undertake any sensitivity testing, to identify the precision of the study’s estimates. Nor does the report sufficiently investigate what the optimal amount of funding should be for charter schools that are not co-located in public school buildings.

Finally, the report is based on data from 2014. Since that date, New York City has significantly reformed its funding regulations for charter schools. Professor Belfield concludes that the report’s estimates are no longer policy-relevant for New York City. And due to the lack of detail on the funding context in New York City, as well as the absence of any corroborating evidence from other localities, it is not useful to help readers understand charter funding issues more broadly.

Find the review, by Clive Belfield, at:
http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-charter-funding

Find Charter School Funding: Inequity in New York City, by Larry D. Maloney and Patrick J. Wolf, published by University of Arkansas, Department of Education Reform, at:
http://www.uaedreform.org/wp-content/uploads/charter-school-funding-inequity-in-new-york-city.pdf