SALT LAKE CITY — To the chagrin of Utah school districts, the Senate approved Wednesday a last-minute education funding bill that will require them to share their property tax revenue with public charter schools.
"We'd like to think we have a good relationship with charter schools, but as more and more money for public education is diverted to charters, it's getting difficult for us to make things work," said Chris Williams, Davis School District spokesman. "We are already behind. This just spreads us out even thinner."
District schools get more than one-third of their money from local property tax revenue. Because charter schools cannot levy taxes, they are financed from a separate pot of money called the "local replacement fund."
SB2, the education budget bill, would do away with local replacement, requiring districts to instead pay charter schools a per-student portion of their property taxes.
In the Senate, the changes in charter school funding didn't illicit discussion. Executive Appropriations Committee co-chairman Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley, said he did not expect the House to endorse the last-minute bill, however.
"Significant policy changes right at the end of the session are very difficult to do," he said, adding that the Legislature would need to study to matter further in the interim.
School districts agree.
"This changes drastically the way education will be funded in the state," Williams said. "This is not an issue that should be brought up on day 44 of a 45 day session. This is an issue that not only we but also the public should have time to consider."
The Legislature set aside $45 million in local replacement money last year. School districts dumped $5.6 million into the pot.
"For a local district to keep all the property tax money that is generated for students who are not attending their schools is basically funding phantom students," said Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, the bill's sponsor. "We're saying, 'Why should you get money for students you aren't teaching?' "
SB2 also tweaks the formula for calculating how much local replacement money charter students get, bumping up the total by about $200 per student. Charter schools would get $13 million for growth, while district schools are absorbing the cost of some 11,000 new children.
Advocates, who claim charter schools get $500 less per student than the state average, have been lobbying for the changes for years.
"Those families who elect to take their children to a charter school pay property taxes," said Judi Clark, executive director of Parents for Choice in Education, a nonprofit group that supports the charter school movement. "The fact that that money was denied to them in the past is inappropriate."
The Legislature would implement the switch gradually over 13 years if the bill passes. Starting with kindergarten in 2011, school districts would take responsibility for an additional grade each year until the state no longer pays local replacement.Districts don't know how they will shoulder the load.
"We're already struggling," said Rhonda Bromley, spokeswoman for Alpine School District. "Adding that kind of burden — where do we turn for that money? We'll have no choice but to raise the tax rate."
There is also some concern about transparency.
To keep tax payers in the know, districts initiate levies in conjunction with specific projects. Once charter schools get a hold of the money, however, they can use it for whatever they want.
"People won't see a line item for charter schools on their income tax statement," said Ben Horsley, spokesman for Granite School District. "Their property taxes will go up, the money won't be spent in their district and they won't know why."
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