NEWS FROM THE

NORTHEAST CHARTER SCHOOLS NETWORK

For Immediate Release
Thursday, January 10, 2013

Contact: Bob Bellafiore
518-928-8471
bob@stanhope-ny.com

Charter Network: undo cuts to poorest-funded students
Largely urban poor students cut by $2 million huge funding gap remains

Despite having overwhelmingly passed historic education reform in 2012, the General
Assembly in December approved damaging spending cuts that will directly affect some
of Connecticuts lowest-funded schools, the Northeast Charter Schools Network
(NECSN) said today.

The $11.4 million in education spending cuts contained in last months deficit mitigation
package includes a $2 million cut in funding to charter school students, or about $300
per pupil, while leaving district school funding untouched in this round of legislative
actions. Charter students, who are primarily poor and urban, already are vastly
underfunded compared with students in district-run schools.

Connecticuts elected leaders can best serve all school children and their families by
equalizing funding among all public schools students, regardless of whether they attend
district or charter schools, NESCN President Bill Phillips said. The General Assembly
took a major step in that direction last year by overwhelmingly approving funding
increases that helped close the sizeable gap between charter funding and district
funding. But the large gap that remained was made worse by budget mitigation steps
taken last month.

Phillips noted that the 2012 funding increases for charters were approved unanimously
in the House and with only seven dissenting votes in the Senate.

Phillips said the General Assemblys decision to cut charter funding is baffling because
parents continue to demand to have the choice of charter schools for their children,
particularly in urban areas. Furthermore, Phillips said, charter schools continue to
perform well.

The budget cuts will hurt schools across the state, including the following:

At Park City Prep in Bridgeport, the effort to obtain a new facility is now in jeopardy.
Bruce Ravage, Executive Director said, Our parents have been asking us for years to


find a safer location for the school. With the additional funding, we were barely able to
fund the new lease. Now, its too risky.

Park City outperforms twenty-two of the twenty-seven district-run elementary and
middle schools in Bridgeport, state data show.

At Common Ground Charter School in New Haven, mid-year cuts could mean staff
or program cuts. Because of the funding gap for charters we already run on a
shoestring, said school director Liz Cox. At Common Ground, to absorb this cut is
equal to the salaries for of our teachers for the remainder of the school year, or our
entire academic interventions program.

According to the state Department of Educations School Performance Index, Common
Ground is outperforming seven of the nine district-run high schools in New Haven.

NESCN is a regional charter school organization that represents nearly 200 charter
schools in Connecticut and New York State.

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