How do charter schools in our state get their funding? Faaya Adem finds out. Plus, a university in Northern Minnesota gets a new Chancellor, and archery deer season opens in Minnesota.
—–Executive Producer: Victor Palomino Producer: Faaya AdemAnchor: Chantel SinGsReader scripting: Victor PalominoFact checking: Joel Glaser, Victor Palomino Editorial support: Emily Krumberger Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood
Transcript
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HOST: You're listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a daily newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota.
ANCHOR: In today's stories, a university in Northern Minnesota gets a new Chancellor. Then, how charter schools in our state get their funding. And, archery deer season opens in Minnesota.
I'm Chantel SinGs.
The University of Minnesota Duluth is celebrating a new chapter with the installation of its tenth Chancellor, Dr. Charles Nies. Originally from Hutchinson, Minnesota, Nies says he's eager to reconnect with the state's values while focusing on student success and strengthening academic opportunities across greater Minnesota. Before his appointment, the new Chancellor spent time working at a university in California. Former Chancellors urged Nies to meet directly with students, calling them the next generation of leaders. The Student Government President welcomed his approachable style, saying it helps students connect with campus leadership.
Next, Charter schools are formed and operate as non-profit corporations in Minnesota. But for many, questions about their funding remain. Reporter Faaya Adem explains how the funding works.
Faaya Adem: Narrator: Charter schools in Minnesota are funded with public dollars, just like traditional public schools. Part of the funding formula is based on the number of students, and they also receive funding based on the statewide average property tax. But with students drawn from across many districts, they're at a financial disadvantage.
Matt McFarlane: It's based on how many students come during the course of the year. And that's called average daily membership, ADM. And so a charter school gets X amount of dollars based on the ADM that they draw for the number of students they draw. Now where a charter school is at a disadvantage in terms of a funding model is that charter schools cannot levy their local tax base.
Faaya Adem: Matt McFarlane is the executive director of PiM Arts High School in Eden Prairie, southwest of Minneapolis.
Matt McFarlane: Because we draw from 55 different school districts, different municipalities, we don't have a tax base that we can levy.
Faaya Adem: A school district levy is a local property tax that is voted on by residents to generate funding to cover budget shortfalls.
Matt McFarlane: The general estimation that I hear is about 30% less funding for a charter school than you see at a geographical school.
Faaya Adem: Charter schools have recently come under scrutiny in media reports for financial misappropriation. But McFarlane says fraud is not just a charter school problem.
Matt McFarlane: I know there's residential districts that are running $100 million deficits. And I know residential districts where there has been financial misappropriation. And the charter school, I think the charter school, this is something that's easy to kind of latch onto, but there's a lot of safety nets in place in terms of in terms of mitigating fraud.
Faaya Adem: Minnesota requires all charter schools to have a finance committee on their school board. The board also approves all expenditures. On top of that, a school's authorizer oversees their finances, and the school must get a full audit every fiscal year.
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Kate Hinton: The other thing that is different about charter schools that can be financially stressful sometimes is that we cannot own our buildings. So we have to have what's called an affiliated building company . So we have to create a LLC, which is our affiliated building company, and that owns our building. And then we have to lease from that building company because we're only allowed to lease property.
Faaya Adem: Dr Kate Hinton, a Doctor of Education, is Executive Director at Math and Science Academy in Woodbury in the eastern Metro area. She is referring to school having to create Limited Liability Companies, or LLCs, to lease their facilities.
Kate Hinton: But we don't get to borrow money at the municipal rate. So like cities, get to borrow at a very low interest rate. We have to pay more market rate. We can still sell bonds, but we can't sell them at the same, because we're not guaranteed by the state. Our interest rates are higher too, because we can't raise taxes if we're having trouble paying.
Faaya Adem: Dr. Hinton says the school receives about $1,300 per student for facilities, an amount that hasn't changed for over 10 years. Despite rising costs, proposals to boost charter school facilities funding have repeatedly stalled at the Legislature. This is Faaya Adem, for North Star Stories.
ANCHOR: You are listening to North Star Stories.
Minnesota's archery deer season is open. The Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, says hunters can expect plenty of opportunities this fall. The DNR encourages hunters to safely enjoy the season and harvest antlerless deer, which are abundant in many parts of the state. Archery hunting plays a key role in managing deer populations and reducing crop damage for farmers. The season runs through December 31. Details on regulations, safety, and testing are available on the DNR website.
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HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers dot org.