In response to a rash of recent opinions offered by those with deep ties to local, separately legislated charter schools and printed in The Buffalo News, the Buffalo Public Schools wishes to set the record straight on the funding issue.

We in the Buffalo Public Schools do not claim that we can educate children cheaper than charter schools; we educate some of the neediest and costliest students in this city.

Charter schools, formed by choice, are fortunate not to have decades of accumulated legacy costs such as retiree health insurance and a more expensive work force due to their greater tenure and experience. These costs, along with the payments to charter schools, represent a significant portion of the structural budget deficit issues the district must grapple with every year in order to balance the operating budget.

The fundamental flaw in the charter tuition formula is the assumption that district costs are variable and follow the student. To the contrary, 86 percent of the district’s operating budget is fixed or mandated.

When a student transfers to a charter school from a single classroom in one of the 65 public schools, the district’s costs do not immediately decrease by $11,000—the amount the district must pay the charter school for that student. The fixed costs—building utilities and teachers’ salaries—are still there. Without the ability to raise revenues, forced reductions occur to make that tuition payment. Of special note is the fact that, since 2005, charter schools have sent more than 4,000 of those students back to the district for social and academic reasons.

Concerning state aid, the notion raised by an Aug. 5 letter to the editor by Kenneth Peterson that charter schools receive only two-thirds of state per-pupil aid is not only miscalculated, it fails to mention that charter schools are separately legislated by the state and do not comply with the same mandates, standards and codes that apply to public school districts.

Such over-simplified calculations fail to disclose that several million dollars of state aid is received as reimbursement for district costs for transportation, special needs and instructional materials, services the district provides at no cost to the charter schools. If the district truly made money on charter students, we would advocate for more.

Absent a freeze on the charter tuition from the state, charter schools would receive an increase of almost $1,600 per student, a total cost to the district of $11.2 million that will come at the expense of the students we continue to serve. It is not only inequitable that one group of students receive funding increases at the expense of others, it is unethical.

The funding is flawed and needs legislative action. It is upon all of us to not only educate the future work force of this region, but to educate ourselves to the real issues and real numbers.