Dive Brief:

• Rhode Island public charter schools banded together Wednesday for a rally on equal funding.
• While the 2010 Fair Funding Formula says funding should be based on a child's needs and not what school they go to, a recent House commission's assessment on the act may threaten how much funding charter schools get.
• The commission is currently looking into how the legislation is playing out and how it's making the best use of tax dollars.

Dive Insight:

This is not the first state to where unequal charter funding has come up. In September, the Northeast Charter Schools Network and five charter school families filed a lawsuit against the New York Supreme Court alleging that the state's current funding formula shortchanges public charter schools. According to the lawsuit, charter schools receive only 60% of the funding that their public school counterparts get. Also under contention: charters having to pay for their own buildings, unlike traditional public schools.

The counter-argument typically raised to these funding concerns is the fact that charters often get more outside funding from foundations and other philanthropic sources than traditional public schools.