The movement to bring charter public schools to Rockford is running strong. But supporters face one major stumbling block -- funding. Here's a look at how charters would impact finances for the rest of District 205.

"This is certainly a movement," says Rockford School Board Member Mike Williams. "The business community and parents, the professional community, everyone is saying this is the right thing to do at the right time."

At a Rockford school board committee meeting Monday night, several board members said it's inevitable: charter public schools have to happen in Rockford. Still, the District's Chief Operating Officer Tom Hoffman says, "It raises a couple issues."

Namely, funding. Hoffman presented a potential scenario: One charter school comes to Rockford, pulling 400 kids from the regular public schools. In that case, Hoffman says it would cost the district 2.5 million dollars to transition students into the charter in its first year. The state would pay about $700-thousand, leaving the district $1.8 million in the hole.

"It doesn't appear that we could balance the budget with those transactions," says Hoffman.

The deficit would come out of the district's accumulated surplus of 70 million dollars. Costs will level off with time, but the main drain is in staffing.

The district won't be able to adjust in advance the number of teachers in each school, even if lots of students leave a particular school in favor of a charter.

Plus, if more than one charter comes to Rockford, costs would increase proportionally. That's the bad news.

On the other hand, charters could lure students back into the district from homeschooling or private schools, increasing per pupil funding and charters negotiate their levels of state funding with the district. On average statewide, they operate on 83 percent funding, passing the savings on to the district.

The school board has received two charter applications and expects several more this month. Education committee members could take a preliminary vote Tuesday night on whether to accept one proposal.

The board's operations committee also got an update on the 2010 budget Monday night. As it stands now, it is balanced. That's despite the fact finance leaders are expecting no growth in property values and therefore property taxes and no increase in state funding.
They're also expecting a million and a half dollars less in taxes from corporations. Those are conservative estimates, but as one board member told me the economy tanked and it's hitting the schools hard. At this point, breaking even would be considered a success.