On January 30, 2025, RFA’s Senior Policy Fellow David Lapp delivered testimony to the school board of the School District of Philadelphia, discussing RFA’s research on the fiscal impact of charter school expansion and the scope of district authority when reviewing applications for new charter schools. As Lapp summarized, the evidence suggests:
- the pie of school funding in Philadelphia is too small and district and existing charter schools are already underfunded,
- further charter expansion will slice that pie even thinner, and
- the school board has the authority to consider that, along with the merits of individual applications, when deciding whether to authorize new charter schools.