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Odyssey charter school3/23/2023 In the first years of their operation in Delaware, charter schools tended to set teacher salaries on an individual basis at the time of hiring, with annual adjustments based on performance. Teachers have unionized at only two charters – Odyssey and Charter School of Wilmington – and the primary issues in those union campaigns related to school management, not salary issues. This is especially true in the early years of a charter school’s operation.Īnother big difference is that collective bargaining – the way local funding for teacher salaries is resolved in traditional districts – is not a factor at most charter schools. To add another layer of complexity, using two New Castle County districts as an example, a charter school would receive more money per student from the Brandywine School District, which has higher per-pupil spending, than it would from the Colonial School District.Īlso, Massett and charter school leaders note, charter schools can’t hold referenda for capital expenses (new construction and major improvements) like traditional schools do, so some of their funds must be allocated to these areas rather than toward salaries. Since spending averages increase almost every year, that means, in most cases, that a charter school will have less money available to allocate to teacher salaries than a traditional district would. School districts send charters a per-pupil payment based on a complex formula related to spending in the previous school year. While charter schools – public schools that don’t have to follow all the rules that traditional districts do – receive state funds to pay teachers based on those teachers’ experience levels and degrees, they aren’t required to allocate those funds dollar for dollar into teachers’ salaries.Ĭharter schools receive funds generated by local tax dollars. Special rules – or the lack thereof – help account for the differentials, but the more telling factors are the age of the school and the experience of its teachers. At eight schools, average pay was $15,000 or more below the state average of $63,822 for the year.įigures in the state’s database for the preceding four years follow essentially the same pattern. The Charter School of Wilmington topped the list with an average salary of $70,999. “We pay what we pay,” says Kendall Massett, executive director of the Delaware Charter School Network, an advocacy group for the state’s charter schools.Īccording to data compiled by the state Department of Education (see chart below), the average salary paid to charter teachers for the 2018-19 school year exceeded the state average for all teachers in only four of 23 charter schools. Teachers in Delaware’s charter schools generally earn less than their peers in traditional public school districts, but that’s not always the case. Delaware Public Media’s Sophia Schmidt and Brooke Schultz of the Delaware State News examined public school teacher salaries at districts across the First State, but where do charter school teacher salaries fit in?ĭelaware Public Media contributor Larry Nagengast took a closer look at them and what drives how charter schools pay their teachers.
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