That said, it does show why Charter schools get less money. They don't have to pay the bloated administration staff system that most schools have... and why the teachers unions are so against charter schools. The bloated Administration is part of the teachers union.
As for school funding... that in of itself is tricky... as Schools have multiple sources of funding... and honestly it's pretty messed up.
Federal funds, State funds and then local funds. Generally State funds are the lionshare of the budget, with local coming in second, and federal being a far third. (which is why in the above post, teachers salary is mostly clustered by state)
As if funding is cut for under performing schools, that really depends on how you define cut. Since schools are state run, Federal government has no power over them. So instead all the Federal government can do is set guidelines for federal funding. Basically Title 1 federal funding is funding that schools with a high number of poor students.
Schools who receive Title 1 Funding have to give a test to their 5th graders. And if they don't show improvement from the year before they have to do these things to keep federal funding
"Schools that miss AYP for a second consecutive year are publicly labeled as being "in need of improvement" and are required to develop a two-year improvement plan for the subject that the school is not teaching well. Students are given the option to transfer to a better school within the school district, if any exists.
Missing AYP in the third year forces the school to offer free tutoring and other supplemental education services to struggling students.
If a school misses its AYP target for a fourth consecutive year, the school is labelled as requiring "corrective action," which might involve wholesale replacement of staff, introduction of a new curriculum, or extending the amount of time students spend in class.
A fifth year of failure results in planning to restructure the entire school; the plan is implemented if the school fails to hit its AYP targets for the sixth year in a row. Common options include closing the school, turning the school into a charter school, hiring a private company to run the school, or asking the state office of education to run the school directly."
If the schools refuses to do any of that... they lose funding. Which generally, they won't remove or change staff. (It's actually probably near impossible considering the teachers unions.)
So really it's a matter of perspective whether the school is having it's funding cut or whether it's choosing to leave the program because it doesn't want to follow the federal guidelines for funding meant to improve grades.
On the hand they aren't... on the otherhand, the federal guidelines are set up in a way they know the teachers unions will block action.
