Board of Aldermen Page 13
May 10, 2016
Alderman LeBrun
| would like to point out to Alderman Clemons that people who send their children to charter schools also pay
taxes to the traditional public schools.
Alderman Schoneman
| would also add that there is no tuition. These are kids that are going to these schools who perhaps cannot
afford a private school but need something a little bit different. As far as what the city contributes, we are
looking at an education budget for the city that is over $100 million. | can tell you that the Academy for Science
& Design pays $80,000 in property taxes in FY ’16.
Alderman Siegel
| would also like to point out that a very popular metric is classroom size in the public schools. To the extent
that we provide alternatives we end up reducing that size. These schools are not set up for some elite class. |
would encourage more charter schools. It’s more school capacity that we are getting at a low cost and
providing an incentive to do so which is a very low cost of entry with a high return on investment.
Alderman Dowd
| was just shown an estimate of the tax burden to the city if we pass this and it was approximately $145,000.
Right now we have the Mayor’s budget that’s $100,000 under the spending cap, to me that doesn’t add up. We
are going to start in the hole.
Alderman Siegel
Very quickly, that number that you gave is 1/10" of 1% of the school budget approximately. Look at the value
add, it looks like a good investment.
Alderman Dowd
| think you are mixing apples and oranges. You are talking about 13,000 students in 18+ school buildings and
millions of dollars in infrastructure in the public school system against these charter schools. | don’t see that
$145,000 If we lose that tax revenue coming off of the school budget. | can’t support this with the discrepancy
right now, maybe later if next year is a better tax year but not this year.
Alderman Clemons
The basic thing for me is that we have public schools and the charter schools that we have. My question is do
they do a great job at the detriment to everyone else? If 200 kids apply and only 100 get in, where the other
100 goes, it’s an unfair system. | don’t want to create a market place that favors charter schools.
Alderman Schoneman
The charter schools do an excellent and there are waiting lists to get in these schools. | would point out that
the waiting list is for kids who want options that they can’t find in the public schools. If we had more charter
schools the size of the waiting list would probably diminish. The Academy for Science & Design is limited to
500 students. The state limits that.
Alderman LeBrun
To Alderman Clemons, if you really want more bang for your buck you would support charter schools.
