Education recommendations > Equality for all K-12 publicly funded students
Equality for all K-12 publicly funded students
The public funding provided for students attending MPS, charter and choice schools varies significantly. Inequitable per-student funding poses the biggest challenge to growing quality schools.
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The bottom line is that choice and charter students are being funded between $5,000 to $6,000 less than their MPS counterparts. This gap places a significant burden on schools to fundraise from private, philanthropic and corporate foundations. Quality school expansion is significantly constrained by the lack of sustainable funding.
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For a public charter school like Milwaukee Academy of Sciences (MAS) with 1,349 students this amounts to a gap of $6M per year. In addition, public charters do not receive transportation funding, which requires MAS to cover $1.5M in student transportation costs. Schools like St. Marcus raise an additional 15% on top of their per-pupil funding, which amounts to an annual fundraising total of $1,275,000 for 950 students.
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Under current law, any general increase in state per-pupil aid flows equally to MPS, charter and choice schools. But currently, funding for charter and private schools is substantially below the cost per student to operate a K-8 or high school.
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