6c6f9896_nce_for_Public_Charter_Schools__Charter_Law_Description
[State] South Carolina [Score] 8 [Charter Law Description] 
South Carolina law provides that a local school board authorizer must distribute state, county, and school district funds to a charter school as determined by a formula created in law. It also provides that the South Carolina Public Charter School District or public or independent institution of higher learning authorizer must receive and distribute state funds to a charter school as provided by the General Assembly. These schools are ineligible to receive local funding. The state budget includes dollars for these schools along with the base student cost per student that each school receives. These dollars equate to $1,900 per virtual charter school student and $3,600 per brick-and-mortar charter school student. The law provides that authorizers shall distribute to charter schools federal funds that are allocated to the authorizer on the basis of the number of special characteristics of the students attending the charter schools. The law also provides that the proportionate share of state and federal resources generated by students or staff serving them must be directed to the authorizer. It requires an authorizer to supply to a school the proportional share of each categorical fund for which the charter school qualified within ten business days after the authorizer receives the funds. If the authorizer fails to do so, the law allows the South Carolina Department of Education to fine the authorizer an amount equivalent to the withheld amounts. South Carolina law provides that charter schools are responsible for providing or contracting for transportation to in-district students. The law provides that the state is not responsible for student transportation unless the charter school is designated by the local school district as the only school selected within the school district’s attendance area. In a national study of charter school funding (University of Arkansas, Charter School Funding: Inequity Expands, 2014), South Carolina charter schools were receiving on average $9,045 per pupil in public funds, while traditional public schools would have received $10,266 for those students. As a result, the state’s charter schools were receiving $1,221 per pupil—or 11.9 percent—less than what the traditional public schools would have received for those students. This figure includes all sources of funding, and analysis reveals continued inequities for both operational and capital funding (see Component #19 for information on capital issues).
18. Equitable Operational Funding and Equal Access to All State and Federal Categorical Funding | National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
Charter Law Description