La. Supreme Court approves state funding for BESE-approved charter schools

Court ruling may clear way for more independent public schools

Charter schools approved by the Board of Elementary & Secondary Education are public schools eligible to receive state Minimum Foundation Program funds, the state Supreme Court ruled last week.

The lawsuit challenging the funding of the Type II charter schools threatened state funds for schools serving about 18,000 students. The ruling also lifted a black cloud over the heads of proposed charters facing obstacles to local school board approval -- including Red River Charter Academy in Avoyelles Parish.

“It is wonderful that the Supreme Court ruled to keep parental choice in education at the forefront,” RRCA President Jessica Couvillion said. “We are glad there is finally a resolution of this issue. Parental choice is a good thing.”

Avoyelles School Board President John Gagnard was disappointed in the court’s ruling.

“I think it is a shame they made that decision,” Gagnard said. “It will dilute state funds to regular public education.”

Gagnard said adding more charter schools “will not improve public education in Avoyelles.” In fact, he said, it will just reduce the amount of money the School Board can spend in its schools to serve its students.

Gagnard said the district’s overall academic performance has been improving and he expects to see more improvement when the latest test scores are released.

Superintendent Blaine Dauzat also expressed disappointment at the ruling.

“However, the Supreme Court has ruled and we will now have to deal with whatever happens,” Dauzat continued. “If that means another charter school, or more charters, we will have to consider drastic cuts to address budget issues.”

Dauzat said he does not want to theorize on what steps might be needed until such time as such action becomes necessary.

5-2 DECISION

In an 18-page decision approved on a 5-2 vote, the justices overruled the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal's 3-2 decision in favor of the Louisiana Association of Educators and other plaintiff's challenging state funding for independent public charter schools. The 1st Circuit found it was unconstitutional to provide public funds to the charter schools because they did not meet the definition of public school in the constitution.

The see-saw legal battle began in 2014. 

The charter supporters won in 19th Judicial District Court when Judge Wilson Fields said the funding method was legal.

In 2017, the 1st Circuit rendered its decision in favor of the plaintiffs. However, charter schools were given a reprieve when the court allowed funding to continue while the issue was in court.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in September 2017.

Justice James Genovese, whose election district includes Avoyelles Parish, wrote that while the state constitution does not define public schools, “our Legislature has expressed that charter schools are independent public schools.”

The court found the plaintiffs failed to prove “clearly and convincingly” that it is illegal to use the state MFP to fund independent charter schools along with local public school systems.

TYPES OF CHARTERS

There are currently 35 charter schools approved by BESE because their local boards denied their application for a charter or refused to consider any applications. State MFP allocations make up about 90 percent of those schools' funding.

Type II charter schools are independent public schools run by their own governing board with no oversight from the local school board.

Overall there are about 80,000 students attending approximately 145 charter schools in the state. There are about 700,000 public school students in the state.

Under the funding formula upheld by the Supreme Court’s ruling, Type II charter schools get the per-student allocation of state funds and the per-student portion of the MFP formula from the local school district.

The charters do not share in school district sales or property tax funds approved for the local school district’s salaries and operations.

Besides the Type II charters, most of the remaining charter schools are in a "recovery school district" for under-performing public schools taken over by the state.

Avoyelles has two charter schools. Neither are affected by this ruling.

Avoyelles Public Charter is fully funded by the state because it was established prior to 2008 -- one of the “Great Eight” or “legacy” charter schools. The state ponies up the local portion of the MFP formula for APCS.

Louisiana School for Agricultural Sciences, LaSAS, is a “Type IV” charter -- the only one of its kind in the state -- which was approved by BESE but operates within the Avoyelles Parish School District.

REMOVES OBSTACLE

Tuesday’s ruling removes one potential obstacle to Red River Charter’s hopes to open in the near future.

RRCA’s application to operate a grade 6-8 middle school that would eventually be a 6-12 high school has been repeatedly rejected by the School Board over the past four years.

BESE’s independent evaluator has endorsed RRCA’s application for the past three years. BESE rejected it one year, killed the application on a tie vote the next and did not have to vote this past year when RRCA withdrew its application prior to the board’s meeting.

Couvillion said the application was withdrawn as a sign of good faith of the proposed school’s desire to work with the local school board and not as an independent public school.

“We have always wanted to be a Type I charter,” Couvillion said.

With the funding issue resolved and the 50-year-old desegregation order set to be lifted this summer, Couvillion is hopeful that RRCA and the School Board can reach an agreement that would see the new school open for the 2019-20 school year.

“If that is not in the cards, we will persevere and continue to work to become a Type II charter if we cannot work it out with the district,” she said.

MONEY, NOT CHILDREN

State Superintendent of Education John White said the suit attempted to cut off state funds to Type II charters and force parents to look elsewhere -- most likely to the free public school districts -- for their children's education. The plaintiffs' hope was to put the charter schools out of business.

He said the case "has always been about money, plain and simple. It was never about children."

Tuesday's ruling avoided what could have been an ugly battle over money, children and education in the legislative session.

Charter supporters were expected to mount an effort to take about $70 million out of the MFP to be dedicated to funding the Type IIs.

The rationale would have been that the allocation to the charters would not be an "unconstitutional" use of MFP funds if the funds were not dispensed from the MFP.

The fights would have occurred when legislators would have debated the need for charter schools that compete with local school districts for students and funding.

Justices voting in favor of charter funding included Genovese of Opelousas, John Weimer of Thibodaux, Greg Guidry of Jefferson Parish, Marcus Clark of West Monroe and Scott Crichton of Shreveport.

Weimer concurred but had different reasons from the other four in the majority.

Chief Justice Bernette Johnson of New Orleans and Jeff Hughes of Walker dissented.

Johnson wrote that public schools have historically been "operated and administered by a locally elected parish or city school board which provides free and open enrollment to every child in the school district."

Charter schools do not meet that model, she noted.

Hughes said state MFP funds should not be given to charter schools. He called the allocations "short cuts around the Constitution" and are "inimical to democracy and are not cool."

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