School Revenue Overview

On average, public charter schools receive fewer dollars per pupil than district schools. Charter school local education agencies (LEAs) and charter-only districts typically operate with less revenue, receiving about 85 cents for every dollar received by district schools. This translates to an average shortfall of $2,954 per student (Table 4.1). Although year-to-year figures fluctuate, the funding gap between sectors remains consistent over time.

Public schools have three primary sources of funding: federal, state, and local revenues. The mix of these sources differs for charter and district schools. District schools tend to rely more heavily on local revenues, especially property taxes, while charter schools receive a larger share of their funding from state sources and much less from local revenues. As a result, charter school funding is more directly tied to state policy choices and appropriations, making it especially sensitive to changes in state budgets and legislation.

The National Alliance analyzed data on public school funding from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) School District Finance Survey (F-33) for fiscal years 2019 through 2023. To ensure comparability across years, all dollar amounts were adjusted for inflation using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) inflation calculator, with September of the initial school year serving as the reference month. For example, the adjustment from FY2022 to FY2023 reflects the CPI change between September 2021 and September 2022. See the methodology page for more details.

The national trend shows that (Table 4.1):

• The charter-district revenue gap remains large despite pandemic-era federal aid.
• Funding mix shifted in 2022-23: federal shares rose in both sectors (reflecting ESSER and related aid), but charters still relied more on state dollars (58%) and less on local (27%) than districts (state 45%, local 43%).
  
  

Data Notes: Sector-level funding differences should be interpreted with caution, as the set of LEAs and states included in the cleaned dataset varies by year. Additional information about the National Alliance’s cleaning process and analytical approach can be found on the methodology page. All figures have been adjusted for inflation and are reported in September 2022 dollars.

When it comes to the state level (Table 4.2):

• In the most recent year of available data (FY2023, or the 2022-23 school year), per-pupil revenue in charter school LEAs was less than per-pupil revenue in district schools for 23 of the 28 states for which we have data.
• The average national gap is about $2,954 per pupil, but the disparity is far more severe in some states. For example, Maine (-$6,761) and California (-$6,034) show large deficits for charter schools. In contrast, states like Massachusetts (+$1,395) and Mississippi (+$199) show near parity.
• Nationally, 58% of charter revenues come from state sources, compared to 45% for districts. In states like Utah (87%) and Minnesota (83%), charters are overwhelmingly reliant on state appropriations, making them especially vulnerable to state-level policy shifts.
  
  

Data Notes: States are included only when both charter and traditional public school (TPS, or district schools) enrollment in the cleaned F-33 data represent at least 50% of each sector’s statewide enrollment. States with less than 50% coverage are excluded, and those with 50-79% coverage are marked with an asterisk*.

School Spending Overview

As shown in Table 4.3, charter schools have consistently spent less per pupil than district schools over the five-year period from FY2019 to FY2023. The gap has averaged more than $4,000 per student annually, widening in certain years such as FY2021. While the gap narrowed slightly in FY2023, it remains a persistent pattern in charter school spending.

Data Notes: Sector-level funding differences should be interpreted with caution, as the set of LEAs and states included in the cleaned dataset varies by year. Additional information about the National Alliance’s cleaning process and analytical approach can be found on the methodology page. All figures have been adjusted for inflation and are reported in September 2022 dollars.

At the state level (Table 4.4), charter-district spending gaps are wide and persistent. In FY2023, charter schools spent less per pupil than district schools in 25 of 28 states. In six states, such as Connecticut and New Jersey, the charter–district expenditure gap exceeded $5,000 per student.    

These disparities stem largely from differences in access to funding streams. District schools benefit from local property tax revenues, which charters in most states cannot access directly. This allows districts to spend more on categories such as facilities, staffing, and student services. By contrast, charters rely more heavily on state appropriations, and their tighter budgets often translate into leaner expenditures across multiple areas.

Charter School Funding in Cities

In addition to our state and national level analysis, research from the University of Arkansas provides further evidence on charter school funding inequities at the city level. In August 2023, Patrick Wolf, Ph.D. and team at the University of Arkansas released a study examining charter school funding across 18 cities. The University of Arkansas team has been investigating charter school funding equity since the 2002-03 school year. The research scrutinizes the 2019-20 school year school finance data from Atlanta, Boston, Camden, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Houston, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Memphis, New Orleans, New York City, Oakland, Phoenix, San Antonio, Tulsa, and Washington, D.C.

The study found that in 2019-20, charter schools across 18 cities in 16 states, on average, received $7,147 less funding per pupil than district schools. This equates to 29.5% less per pupil compared to district schools in these cities. Compared to the previous study that examined the data from the 2017-18 school year, there has been an over 3% decrease in funding disparity between charter schools and district schools. However, the funding gap between the two sectors remains large and has shown little improvement since the early 2000s.