Fair School Funding for Oregon

Dear [Legislator],

This year, we celebrated 25 years since the charter law passed in Oregon. When the legislature passed that bill, they baked inequities into the funding formula for charter schools and since then Oregon’s public charter schools have been asked to do more with less.

A new report found that students at Oregon in-person public charter schools receive, on average, 48 cents on the dollar in per-student funding compared to district-run schools – about $6,000 less per charter school student. That gap has grown significantly over the last decade and is baked into law, which only requires districts to distribute 80% of General Purpose grant funds to K-8 charter schools and 95% to charter high schools. Fixing the charter school pass-through rate is the solution.

Our public charter schools have grown by 47% in the past 10 years with 25,000 students attending in-person Oregon charter schools today. These schools specialize in offering innovative ways to support students, including those who have struggled in conventional schools. They can’t do more to serve students who need it the most with ever fewer resources. Our students deserve fair funding.

We need to fix this outdated law that shortchanges charter schools and take other steps to ensure fair funding for our public charter school students. I urge you to review the latest numbers and take action toward fair funding by supporting House Bill 3444.