Orlando hates Steve Wise too

As should everyone that cares about public education. -cpg

From the Orlando Sentinel's editorial board

In 1996, Florida began a grand experiment in education reform. Charter schools were placed in a statewide Petri dish.

Critics warned that the public/private hybrids would siphon off funding and spell the end of traditional public schools.

And now, some state lawmakers foolishly plan to hand charter schools the hose. The Senate Education Committee has endorsed a bill requiring local school districts to share with charter schools a portion of the $1.9 billion in construction and maintenance money collected through local taxes. Money that charter schools could use to defray leases or to buy buildings that — rather than reverting to the public — private operators get to keep if the school is not renewed or goes belly up.

Charter schools currently get tax money based on each student they have, but when it comes to the separate pot of construction and maintenance money, school districts get to decide whether and how much to give charter schools.

A bill introduced by Sen. Stephen Wise, a Jacksonville Republican, would do away with that local discretion. District school boards would be forced to proportionately share property tax revenue for construction and maintenance on a per-student basis with charter schools. About a $140 million windfall for charter schools.

Backers say the move simply balances the funding scales. Earlier this week, a Florida TaxWatch analysis revealed a funding disparity. Charters get only 70 cents for every dollar per student that traditional schools receive.

Wait. Rewind … Didn't charter school prophets pledge to do more with less? Wasn't less regulation supposed to deliver greater efficiency?

Last year, charters enjoyed a $55 million slice of the state's Public Education Capital Outlay fund, even as traditional public schools went without.

Now, Wise's bill would poke another stick in taxpayers' eyes. For-profit charter management companies could take the money and build schools and lease them to the charter schools. Should the school fold, taxpayers are out the money — and the building. Unacceptable.

We've supported charter schools in the past, but traditional public schools aren't in shape to absorb the blow they'd take from Wise's bill. In many districts, much of the property tax is already dedicated to servicing debt for construction to accommodate growth and class-size mandates. Districts could be left scrambling to pay their debt — which could sink their bond ratings.

It's such a nonsensical notion that even the House deleted the sharing provision from its version of the bill. The Senate ought to do the same

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/os-ed-charter-schools-funding-021112-20120210,0,7431759.story