Seven fast-growing charter schools, including all four of the state’s virtual school choices, were among the top 20 in gaining state aid in annual, midyear adjustments made this week by the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
In making midyear adjustments, state education officials distributed the final remaining 1.56 percent, or $28.6 million, in state aid for the fiscal year ending June 30, across 513 school districts and 31 charter schools.
These adjustments are based on a variety of factors, including schools’ increases or decreases in student enrollment during the first nine weeks of the school year and changes in local tax revenues.
Matt Holder, deputy state superintendent of finance and federal programs, said this year’s redistribution of available state aid dollars doesn’t represent as dramatic a change as previous ones because statewide student growth slowed this year.
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While these midyear funding notices from the state typically paint a definitive picture for each school’s budget the last half of the fiscal year, Holder said nothing is certain given Oklahoma’s still-shaky economy.
“We’re still looking at the economy and the collections that are coming in, and they seem to be down. I don’t think we would be surprised if there was a general revenue failure in the spring,” Holder said.
“Charters have no local tax base, so they will see a more significant increase when their enrollment goes up. They’re also completely dependent on state aid, so the downside is they see the worst cuts when we have (state aid) cuts.”
Tulsa Public Schools lost the most state aid dollars — $2.77 million — since initial allocations of state aid were released to public schools in July. TPS officials say the decrease is an off-set of their increase in local tax revenue.
Conversely, Epic Charter School, which is sponsored by the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, saw its state aid shoot up $10.75 million to about $40 million total.
Oklahoma’s three other virtual charter schools, Insight School of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Connections Academy and Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy, saw their state aid increased by a total of $5.78 million.
So combined, the four virtual charter schools received state aid increases totaling $16.53 million.
Two still-new TPS-sponsored charter schools that are adding students as planned, Tulsa Honor and College Bound academies, also made the top 20 list for state aid increases at $585,000 and $504,000, respectively. The other charter school in the top 20 is Oklahoma City’s Santa Fe South, which picked up $2.57 million.
New schools and existing ones that see the greatest increases in student enrollment typically stand to pick up the most at this midyear juncture. That was certainly true for Epic, which has seen its enrollment jump about 50 percent in one year to 9,079.
In a news release, Epic Superintendent David Chaney said that the virtual charter school is now the 14th-largest school system in Oklahoma, with students residing in all 77 counties. He also pointed out that his school “experiences significant growth” in student enrollment each fall after initial state aid allocations are made.
“Historically, the size of our mid-term adjustment has given the appearance that our funding is being increased, and some have even suggested at the expense of other districts. That is not true. In reality, the (state Department of Education) is simply playing catch-up, providing funding to educate students who have been enrolled and are being served, but for whom we weren’t receiving any funding. Moreover, Epic’s per-pupil funding is nearly the lowest in the state — and in a state that ranks almost dead last in the nation in per-pupil funding,” Chaney said.
