Dive Brief:

• A bill raising the caps on charter schools in Boston has not been resolved, despite a deadline on Tuesday to reach an agreement. 

• The funding of charter schools has been contentious for quite some time in Boston. Since per-pupil funding follows the student, each time a student leaves a traditional public school, so do thousands of dollars.

• Making the cap decision more difficult is the failure of a 2010 law requiring the state to reimburse school districts 100% of per-pupil costs the first year a student switches to a charter school, and 25% the ensuing five years. 
• The reimbursement law is currently tied to charter caps. In the last two years, the state hasn’t completely reimbursed districts for the loss of students to charter schools and the current budget is $28 million short of full funding. 

Dive Insight:

One major criticism of the link between charter caps and state reimbursement comes from the Race to the Top Coalition, a group pushing for the expansion of charter schools. They believe the tied agendas allow lawmakers to block expansions of charter schools by underfunding the reimbursement by something as small as a dollar. 

On Wednesday, the House offered a new plan that would gradually raise the cap on charter schools. The new proposal, which is not linked to district reimbursements, is still in limbo too.