Half of NH Charter Schools Lack State Money

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Charter schools across the state are keeping a close watch on the Franklin Career Academy.
Since December, the charter school and the Franklin School District have been arguing over state education aid.
Now the Franklin school board says even with state money, the charter school won’t survive financially.
The school board has asked the state board of education to revoke the charter.
Career Academy Founder Bill Grimm says the disagreement with the Franklin School Board may end up in the courtroom.
"they have given every indication that they’re not going to pay it so maybe it has to be determined in the courts, I hope that’s not the case, but it’s sort of the ultimate resolution"

State law requires that school districts give state aid to the charter school.
But Franklin City Councilor Jay Bowers says the district won’t have that money for two years.
"the adequacy aid that we get this year is based on numbers two years ago that we had, so any new kids that start in the school this year, any home-schoolers that come into the school, we don’t get any money for them for two years from now."

All school districts have to wrestle with the two year lag in state aid; Bowers says charter schools only compound the problem.
The situation in Franklin has many charter school directors across the state nervous.
Maria Minieckiello heads the Cocheco Arts and Technology Charter Academy, or CATA, in Stratham.

"what’s happening there directly impacts all of us because it’s all related to the school district funding so what’s happening there isn’t only happening there, it has an impact everywhere"

CATA opened in January with 19 students from six different school districts.
So far three of those districts –Dover, Rochester, and Nottingham- have yet to give the charter school its share of state education aid.

"They’re working hard to try to figure out how they’re going to be able to send this money to us because they know that’s supposed to happen but they’re all working from a very limited budget they’re not just like waiting to write a check because that money, it’s not just sitting there as sort of extra money hanging around"

Of the six charter schools now operating across the state, only three have received state education money from local school districts.
Laurent Clerc Academy -a charter school that serves deaf children-hasn’t received state aid or the federal money it’s supposed to receive for serving special education students.
Director Susan Brule.
"We’re basically trying to find out what we need to do to get it, right now we’re just trying to come up with a strategy to achieve that so we can continue to have our doors open."

Brule and other charter school directors say local districts doling out state education money only sets up an adversarial relationship between districts and charter schools.

"I believe that a lot of the school districts and some of our contacts the response has been they’ve hired attorneys for their board and a lot of people are waiting to see how the department’s going to handle it, how they’re going to respond to the fact that adequacy money is being withheld."

The Department of Education has issued advisories to try to settle the debate over the transfer of state aid.
Districts can borrow the money, or incur debt through revenue anticipation notes.
But Sue Hollins, a charter school consultant with the New Hampshire Center For School Reform, says putting that advice into practice can be difficult.

“the anticipatory note scheme doesn’t work and I doubt if anybody is going to use it. I think it sounded really good when people wrote it but from the banks I’ve talked to they’re not going to start writing the equivalent of tax anticipation notes and getting into this whole thing for 15-thousand dollars, it isn’t worth their time."

Charter school directors say the department’s advisories only create more questions.
Again, Maria Minieckiello with the Cocheco Arts and Technology Charter Academy.

"Those advisories are not a mandate they’re not a law, they’re just an advisory so what does that mean? Like okay, I advise you to do something, does that mean you’re going to do it? No, not necessarily."

Some charter school proponents say the situation in the state is no different than what other states have gone through in establishing charter schools.
Putting a new law into practice comes with growing pains.
But State Board of Education member Will Boc believes the board should stop approving charter schools until the funding issue can be resolved.

"the legislature passed this enabling legislation for charter schools to come into existence but they didn’t settle and didn’t pin down how they were going to be funded and now the Franklin charter school is in financial crisis they can’t conduct their mission if they don’t have the funding to do it so until all that is sorted out I don’t think we should be approving any more charter schools."

The law allows the state board of education to revoke a charter.
First they have to develop a procedure to do that – which is something they’re working on.
But board members have given no indication that they will revoke Franklin’s charter.
They have gone as far as to ask the Attorney General’s office for advice.
Assistant Attorney General Ann Larney says their office is also trying to serve as mediator in the Franklin Career Academy dispute.

"what we’ve been trying to do is arrange a meeting with the lawyers for the state, the city of Franklin, and the Franklin School Board to see if we can resolve it without litigation, and resolve the issue without anybody going to court"

Lawmakers are also examining the issue.
A House charter school subcommittee will debate a bill that would have the Department of Education pay state aid money directly to charter schools.
Most educators agree that would resolve any future disputes between charter schools and local school districts.
But the Department of Education has said it doesn’t have the resources to do that.
For NHPR news, I’m Amy Quinton.