Philadelphia’s financially distressed school district, one of the country’s biggest battlegrounds over the expansion of charter schools, recently approved five new charters in a contentious meeting. The vote by the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, formed in 2001 as part of a state takeover of the city’s education system due to financial problems and low test scores, marked the first time in seven years it has considered new charters in the city. The vote added 2,684 new charter school seats. A total of 39 charter schools applied.
Nearly 80 people spoke at the five-hour meeting. The district already has 86 charter institutions. Despite the lack of new charter licenses in years, the schools have grown rapidly in Pennsylvania as the district has turned over some under-performing schools to charter operators and existing charters have expanded. Charter school enrollment has doubled since 2007, when the they served 32,000 students. They now educate 30 percent of the Philadelphia system’s 207,000 students, according to district figures. They also account for about a third, or $766.7 million, of the district’s $2.5 billion budget, which is an uptick from 2011, when charters took up just 18 percent, according to district budget documents. Opponents warn that approving new charter seats could deny resources to existing public schools. When students transfer into charters, they essentially take their funding with them but leave the traditional schools stuck with the fixed costs like building maintenance and central administration. Charters receive about $10,000 a year for each student they enroll, the same as the district spends on students in other schools.