School funding ripped in report
More than 100 city public schools that share buildings with charter schools missed out on millions in facilities funding they were owed under state law, a new report says.
Under state law, when charter schools located in city Department of Education buildings spend more than $5,000 on facilities upgrades, the city is required to give public schools sharing the same buildings the same amount for renovations.
But the matching funds are inconsistently doled out — and 127 public schools got $15.5 million less than they were owed between 2014 and 2019, according to a report from the advocacy group Class Size Matters.
In other instances, public schools got more than they were owed, the report says. The exact matching amount was distributed in just four of more than 800 instances, the analysis found.
The funding discrepancies can put public schools at a serious disadvantage in the eyes of parents evaluating their options, said a city public school principal.
“We’re competing for the same kids in the same neighborhood,” said the principal, who asked to remain anonymous. “If I’m a parent and I come into the building, and one [school] looks brand new, why would I want to send my kid to the school that looks 110 years old?”
In one instance in the report, a Success Academy charter school in Harlem spent $2.4 million on upgrading its facilities from 2014 to 2019.
But Mosaic Prep, a public school in the same building, got just $1.3 million in matching funds from the city Department of Education over the same period — about half of what it was owed, according to city data analyzed by Class Size Matters.
Shaheem Lewis, a Mosaic Prep parent, said that if the school was fully funded, it would have had money for critical repairs including retiling classroom floors, upgrading a wornout gym floor and repairing broken auditorium seats.
“Our kids are not feeling proud because they don’t get a new desk or new paint on the wall,” Lewis said.
Education Department spokeswoman Katie O’Hanlon said the city schools get funding that “match[es] every facility investment” made by charter schools.
City Education Department officials said some of the matching money may not arrive at public schools concurrently with the charter schools’ spending, and thus would not have been reflected in the spending reports analyzed by Class Size Matters.
Education Department officials say they “work closely with principals on timelines that make the most sense for their school communities.”
But report author Leonie Haimson said the law is clear that the city is supposed to provide the matching funds within three months.
And the DOE principal said communication about the matching funds is often spotty.
“Most years I would get an email saying ‘This is how much money you’re getting,’ ” said the principal. “But there are a few years I haven’t gotten those emails ... and I don’t always get the money in a timely manner,” the principal added.
The matching funds law took effect in 2010 amid complaints that charter schools were tapping into resources unavailable to public schools to spruce up their facilities — creating visible disparities between neighboring schools and ratcheting up tensions in shared buildings.