Judge bars APS from withholding funding to charter schools

Atlanta Public Schools must stop withholding local property tax revenue from charter schools it had demanded help from in paying for the district’s pension program, a Fulton County Superior Court judge ruled.

The ruling means the 10 charter schools that filed suit against APS in August could get as much as $2.8 million this fiscal year. That’s the amount the schools’ attorney, Rocco Testani, said APS had planned to withhold.

Testani argued that charter school employees are not employees of the district and do not benefit from its pension program. He also argued that the law is clear on how districts fund traditional public schools and charter schools.

On Wednesday, Judge Wendy Shoob agreed, issuing a ruling from the bench. A written ruling could be released today.

“We respect the judge’s ruling,” APS spokesman Steve Alford said. “Our primary concern is that all of our schools have the resources they need, whether they are traditional public schools or charter schools.”

Alford would not say if the district will appeal.

Charter schools are public schools that are granted flexibility from some rules in exchange for pursuing specific education goals.

If approved by a local school district’s board, charter schools share in the district’s local property tax money, which is distributed to schools based on a formula. But districts can — and do — withhold as much as 2 percent of a charter school’s revenue to cover administrative costs. Districts are also not required to share sales-tax money with charter schools.

Testani said APS told charter schools in June that they would be required to help the district pay for its pension program.

The district’s 10 startup charter schools – those that had not been converted to charter status after a period as a traditional public school – filed suit in August.

“What our case was about was to get APS to follow the law,” Testani said.

Shoob was assigned to hear the case. She has issued rulings in big charter cases before. Earlier this year, she ruled against charter-school parents who argued that Fulton County Schools should not be allowed to put on its website information the parents claimed left a negative impression of the charter-schools constitutional amendment that was the subject of fierce political debate.

In 2010, Shoob ruled in favor of the state when Georgia sought to protect the power of the former Georgia Charter Schools Commission to authorize charter schools.

The Georgia Supreme Court later reversed that ruling, setting the stage for the bitter debate about the charter-schools constitutional amendment.

At least one of the APS charter schools that sued the district, Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School, sent a letter home to parents informing them of the decision.

“APS arbitrarily decided that they could change the funding formula that has been used since the beginning of Georgia Charter Schools in 1998,” ANCS’s governing board wrote to parents. “We believe that this decision is clearly in violation of Georgia law. None of our teachers ever participated in the pension program nor have charter schools ever had any influence on how the pension has been funded for the past three decades.”

The letter informed parents that the case might not end with Shoob’s ruling.