CHESTER, Pa. – The education establishment and local officials want the public to believe charter schools are sucking the Chester Upland School District dry.

The district, which has been under state control for decades for financial mismanagement, made a grand spectacle as school started this year when officials told teachers the district can’t make payroll next week, ABC 6 reports.

The problem, they contend, is that the district must pay out so much money to local charter schools to educate students that it’s broke, and it’s all because of the state’s funding system.

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“The formula we have now is not working,” Chester Mayor John Linder told the news site. “We have a lot of people who majored in math, accounting. Change the formula.”

In fact, the Chester school district owes local charter schools $8.7 million for educating students who would otherwise attend the district’s dismal public schools. Chester’s state receiver, Francis Barnes, argued in Delaware County Court of Common Pleas in a two-day hearing last week to reduce reimbursement to charters he credits with sinking district finances, but a judge denied his request, the Delaware County Daily Times.

Judge Chad F. Kenney ruled that the district must demonstrate how it will address past-due payments and the $8.7 million debt before considering relief, which prompted Barnes to request extra funding from the state.

“Now it is time to complete the plan with state funding to satisfy the remaining deficit cited by Judge Kenney in denying the plan and restore the Chester Upland School District to financial stability and hopefully allow the Court to approve the Amended Financial Recovery Plan,” Barnes wrote in an email sent to the media last weekend.

Barnes is currently trying to dig the district out of a $22 million annual deficit, according to the Times.

Meanwhile, Chester teachers and school staff voted to work without pay while their employer gets its act together.

The district’s money problems are nothing new. The state has sent the district nearly $75 million in extra money over the last five years to keep it afloat.

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The problem stems from a mass student exodus from the district’s unionized public schools to public charter schools – which educate students on behalf of the district for a set cost per pupil, based on the type of student. The per pupil payments are set in state law, though Barnes is trying his best to reduce them.

There are 2,985 students enrolled in Chester’s traditional district schools, and 4,224 enrolled in public charter schools, according to the most recent state data.

The Pennsylvania School Performance Profile website allows viewers to compare local schools, and when one pits the district run Chester High School against Chester Community Charter School, the reason for parents fleeing for charters is obvious.

The percentage of Chester High School students who are proficient in math, reading and science is roughly 2, 16, and 1 percent, respectively. At the charter school, 33 percent of students are proficient in math, 28 percent in reading, and 24 percent in science.

Indicators of academic growth also give the Chester Community Charter School the edge, with scores of 100 in mathematics and 64 in reading, versus 50 in those categories for Chester High School.

Attendance is likely also a factor, as the charter school’s rate is about 8 percent higher than at Chester High, which received the lowest possible performance indicators for all categories except academic growth in science and attendance. Only about 57 percent of Chester High School students graduate high school.

Instead of accepting that parents prefer independent charter schools over district schools, Chester school officials are using the district’s best education options as a scapegoat for its chronic budget and academic problems.

“What it has done is pitted the parents of district students against the parents of charter school students,” school board member Bill Riley complained to ABC 6.

Judge Kenney did approve portions of the school district’s proposed Recovery Plan that school officials should have done a long, long time ago.

“The portions of the plan that were accepted by Judge Kenney include initiating a forensic audit to reassure tax dollars are being spent properly, bringing in a financial turnaround specialist to find immediate savings, and restructuring a loan agreement with the Department of Education,” Barnes wrote in his recent statement, according to The Washington Post.

Unfortunately, Barnes and district leadership seem more interested in pursuing their case against public charter schools than cleaning up their own finances.

“All these actions are imperative in putting Chester Upland on solid financial footing,” Barnes’ statement continued. “But Judge Kenney’s decision to reject necessary reforms to the …. Rates paid by the school district to its charter schools will unfortunately allow a decades-old problem to persist, and the district’s massive budget deficit will only worsen.

“It is clear serious financial reforms are still needed and my administration will evaluate its options moving forward.”

Chester Community Charter School CEO David Clark told the Times the district’s inability to honor its financial obligations is taking a toll on the school, particularly because the state has also missed payments.

“The fact that the district and the commonwealth have both failed to make statutory payments to charters in July and August and are now poised to miss the September payment, has made the impact on the charter schools far greater,” Clark wrote in an email. “Charter schools in the district will be owed more than $20 million by Sept. 5.”

Clark said it defies common sense to blame the district’s money problems on payments it hasn’t made.

“It is unfair and inaccurate for the receiver to characterize the Chester Upland School District’s financial owes as a result of charter school payments,” he said.