Are charter schools adding costs to run the district in Nashville or not? It’s a seemingly simple question the Metro board of education can’t agree on in a continually evolving debate about independently-run public schools.
So we talked to the district’s top number cruncher to get an answer.
Chris Henson has done the math that both sides use to support their claims. He’s the district’s long-time chief financial officer, currently acting as superintendent. And he’s playing referee between charter skeptics and charter advocates, with dueling op-eds
here and
here.
“I don’t know that at this point anyone can say everything is going to be fine, but I also don’t think at this point anybody can say there’s a crisis,” Henson says.
More:
Read the latest outside study on the fiscal impact of charters from Lipscomb University.
In the next few years, the number of students in charter schools is projected to double from 8,000 to 16,000. And for every one of those students, $9,200 follows them out the door. State law entitles charters to the average per-pupil expenditure, which is established by roughly dividing the total district budget by the number of students.
But as students start choosing charters, the district’s costs don’t decrease at the same rate. Even if a few dozen leave a district-run school, they could be from all different grades, meaning it would be hard to even cut a single teacher. And it would take years of attrition before a school could close, and Henson points out that’s a “difficult and emotional thing to do.”
“I always start off with that. There is a true budgetary impact,” Henson says.
This year’s budget carves out $50 million to pay for the additional costs created by charter schools.
But charter advocates say the district hasn’t tried hard enough to cut costs, and they suggest the system is overlooking potential savings.
Right now, Nashville charters are serving students primarily zoned for high-needs schools where the actual per-pupil spending is well above $9,200. So when those students move to a charter, it could look like cost savings.
Board member Mary Pierce asked Henson’s office to look into a hypothetical situation: What if all the students in charter schools moved back into district-run schools?
Henson
did the analysis and found the district would be spending $3.5 million more if every charter closed. But he says it’s a flawed exercise.
“We put quotation marks around the word ‘savings’ because it’s not a true savings to the district budget.”
The only place Henson sees for potential savings is when charters prevent the district from having to expand schools or build new ones, and even then it depends on a lot of variables.
“It’s very difficult to say yes, the district could save capital costs by a charter opening in an area that has overcrowded schools,” he says. “It’s a possibility.”
Henson would rather everyone acknowledge there is a cost to charters. He prefers a debate about whether they’re worth the investment. Right now, charters make up some of the
top performing schools in the city.