State Board Makes No Decision on Funding Levels for Charter Schools

The State Board of Education tossed the thorny issue of funding for charter schools back in the lap of Los Angeles school officials Friday by deciding not to decide for local districts how much money such schools should get.

The Los Angeles Unified School District and one of its first charter schools, the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima, have been at odds over how much money the school should receive for its first year of operations since essentially breaking away from the vast district.

State legislation approved in 1992 allows schools to become independent for most purposes. State funding, however, still goes to the district before winding up at the school.

The school had been counting on receiving about $3,100 per student, or about the average per-pupil funding in the district, and had developed an ambitious menu of social and health services to complement its academic offerings. But Los Angeles school officials were only willing to give Vaughn about $2,800 per pupil, which is close to the amount other elementary schools are to eventually receive as a result of a consent decree in an unrelated lawsuit.

That lawsuit claimed that schools in affluent areas received more funding than those in poorer areas, such as Vaughn.

On Friday, the state board issued answers to some questions that have arisen relating to charter schools. One involved how much money charter schools should get, and the board left it to local educators to decide. If, however, the district does not decide on an amount, then charter schools should receive the same as the district’s average per-pupil funding, the board said.

“It’s up to the district to make the allocation to the charter school, whether it’s an elementary school or a high school,” said Roger Wolfertz, an attorney for the state Department of Education. “We don’t apportion out to the charter schools, we apportion out to the district.”

Vaughn’s principal, Yvonne Chan, said she was optimistic that Los Angeles district administrators would give the school more money. If not, she said, Vaughn “will not be the type of next century learning center the way we see it.”

Instead, she said, it would be more of a conventional school that would not address the social needs of children and their families.

Chan said she would ask the district to reconsider the amount of liability insurance Vaughn is required to carry and the requirement that Vaughn contribute to long-term maintenance costs for the district’s other schools. She also said she would ask the district to give Vaughn time to gradually reach the funding level that was agreed upon to settle the court case. The consent decree in that case gave the district until 1997 to equalize funding for schools in the district.

Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias said the school district would work with Vaughn to settle the issue in its favor. “Even now we’re recomputing some figures . . . to get as close to the figure that the Vaughn learning center would want,” he said.

He said the district wanted to resolve the funding issue as quickly as possible. “It’s our full intention that they succeed,” he said.

In other action, the state board approved the charter petition of Fenton Avenue School in Lake View Terrace, making it California’s 30th charter school. “That’s wonderful,” Assistant Principal Irene Sumida said. But “now the hard work really begins.”

The school has already begun gearing up for Jan. 1--when its charter is scheduled to take effect--by forming various councils to govern the school.

Like Vaughn, Fenton plans to control its finances, and Sumida said Friday’s state board advisory will affect the school’s decisions. She said the school had planned its budget based on an allotment of $3,100 per pupil.

Times staff writer Henry Chu contributed to this article.