The ‘Windfall’ Lie

As state lawmakers dickered over charterschool funding in the new budget, let’s at least do away with the canard that less-unfair funding means a “windfall” for these public schools. To the contrary: The freeze on charter per-pupil funds since 2009 has meant a windfall for regular school systems, which still saw their state aid grow each year.

Why a windfall? Well, each system gets state cash (and local tax money) to fund public education for all kids in its area. But systems get to spend less on every student who attends a public charter than they do every other public-school child, for a huge savings.

Under current law, the freeze was supposed to have ended this year, which would force the city Department of Education to send charters $200 million more a year in per-pupil support.

That would certainly be welcome on the other end, but it’s no “windfall” — it’s just the end of an ongoing injustice, at the expense of kids who now make up 10 percent of the public-school population.

Nor is it that big a hole in the DOE budget of $31 billion for 2017-18 — less than 1 percent.

And it still leaves charters without equal “facilities funding” — that is, money for the school building itself. Charters get varying levels of public support for their facilities — some have to cover the rent entirely, while others get some taxpayer help and others still get to use excess public space.

Figure in those costs, the Independent Budget Office found recently, and charters here in the city are being shorted from $1,145 per kid (for the luckiest) to $4,863.

That last number translates to about 25 percent less per student — which ought to be grounds for a lawsuit under the Constitution’s Equal Protection clause.

Assembly Democrats’ other concern about the “windfall” issue: They fought for an added $700 million in state school aid this year, and worry that showing (some) fairness to charter-school kids would eat most of that up.

That’s why some discussed compromises would have had the state directly cough up more dough to reduce the funding gap.

To be clear: Even without including facilities costs, ending the freeze would leave charters with less funding than regular public schools.

It’s simply shameful that so many state leaders, from Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to Gov. Cuomo, are willing to ignore this fact and treat the “windfall” issue as a real problem — when it barely even qualifies as an “alternative fact.”