Terra Goodnight · June 14, 2013

Ohio’s charter schools spend far more on administration than public schools

Governor Kasich frequently claims to embrace school funding policies that put more money in the classroom. So a new Innovation Ohio Education Fund analysis released today may prove instructive, as it looks at how likely Ohio traditional public and charter schools are to do just that. The IOEF analysis finds that:

• Traditional public school districts in Ohio dedicated 11.5% of their spending to administration
• The average charter spends over 28% on administration
• The best charter schools spend 20.5%, while the worst spend nearly 40% on administration
• On a per pupil basis, the worst charter schools in Ohio spend six times as much on administration

As a House-Senate conference committee works to finalize the state’s upcoming two-year budget, they should consider whether charters, particularly poor performing charters, are a good investment of taxpayer funds if the goal is truly to get dollars into the classroom. Read the IOEF analysis here.