By Gary Grado | Arizona Capitol Times
The Arizona Supreme Court ended the nearly six-year bid by charter schools today to get funding for their students on a par with students from traditional public schools.
The court refused to hear an appeal of a Court of Appeals decision issued in November that held charter students aren’t entitled to state funding equal to their school district peers.
Eileen Sigmund, president and CEO of the Arizona Charter Schools Association, said charter schools are paid $1,179 less per student than school districts.
Comment by Rose Law Group Litigation Attorney:
The court appears to try and have its cake and eat it too in recognizing that charter schools are indeed public schools, but then exempting them from the constitutional provision guaranteeing a “uniform public school system.” While this will only increase the financial pressure many charter schools feel under the current financing system, the state legislature could opt to raise funding for charter schools equivalent to traditional public schools, leaving this issue far from settled.
