Over the past decade-plus, charter-school advocates have raised concerns about purported funding disparities between charter schools and district public schools. This new report from Bellwether uses tabulations of funding across charter and public schools to describe the size of the funding disparities in the District of Columbia (DC) from 2022 to 2025. The report finds that the district’s public schools are more generously funded, but it fails to prove that charter schools are underfunded or that they should, in fact, be funded at parity with public schools. The report neither applies a valid method of comparison nor acknowledges these different responsibilities. Indeed, it provides no way to determine if DC charter schools are funded at the “right level” or what that level should be. As a result, it is of limited use to policymakers—except perhaps within the district as an introductory or preliminary study.

Suggested Citation: Belfield, C. (2025). NEPC review: Resource realities: A comparative analysis of charter and district school funding in Washington, D.C. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center. Retrieved [date] from http://nepc.colorado.edu/review/funding-disparities