LAUSD charters would lose funding under Gov. Jerry Brown's budget
by By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer
Wilbur Elementary got $230,000 in state grants when it converted to a charter last fall, a windfall that allowed the Tarzana campus to keep class sizes small and provide personalized help to struggling students.
Now, administrators at Wilbur and other affiliated charters, nearly all of them in the San Fernando Valley, are struggling with the news that they stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants if lawmakers approve Gov. Jerry Brown's new formula for funding public education.
"It's a nice chunk of money," said Principal Deborah Plat who worked with parents and staff on the 100-page charter petition approved last year. "It let us go on a shopping spree, if you will, but one that let us figure out how to do best by our students. "
Brown's proposal would eliminate funding for charter grants and nearly every other program that serve a specific purpose. Instead, that money would be reallocated to districts, which would receive a base amount of roughly $6,800 per pupil and an extra 35 percent for each English learner and low-income student. Campuses with
