Philanthropy Favors Traditional Public Schools Over Public Charter Schools, Study Finds

Traditional public schools received an average of $3,090 in philanthropic support compared with $1,680 for public charter schools, a 46 percent disparity, according to a new study.

Most of the philanthropic support for public charter-school systems goes to a small number of large, well-known charter-school systems, said Patrick Wolf, co-author of the study by the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. The research was funded in part by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, which has poured millions of dollars into efforts to bolster charter schools and alternatives to traditional public schools.

“Almost all of the philanthropy that goes to the charter sector goes to one-third of the public charter schools,” said Wolf. “It seems like there are charter-school systems that philanthropic organizations are investing heavily in, and a lot of independent, mom-and-pop charter schools aren’t receiving anything in philanthropy now.”

The report examined eight major metro-area school systems that operate both traditional and charter schools, ranging from New York City, the largest, to Little Rock, Ark., the smallest. Some of the philanthropic disparities, Wolf hypothesized, may be due to the fact that smaller charter schools and charter-school systems often lack the administrative capacity to apply for charitable grants.

The study also showed a big gap in public funding: Traditional public schools received an average of $23,680 per student in 2018 from all sources of funding, compared with $15,881 per student enrolled in public charter schools, a 33 percent difference. The study found funding discrepancies persisted even when they controlled for factors that might drive up funding needs for traditional public schools, such as larger populations of English-language learners or special-education students.