"The Board of Education remembers the assertion by the state legislature that charter schools would be less expensive to operate than traditional schools and the commitment by the legislature to fund charter schools," Granite District's statement reads. "The [board] calls upon the legislature to fulfill its commitment rather than pass the costs on to school districts."

Utah school districts' mounting objections to the requirement are another shot across the bow in the contentious debate over Senate Bill 2, also known as the omnibus education bill, passed by the Legislature this year.

Critics who filed suit over the bill, still mired in the courts, argue it violates a provision in the Utah Constitution stipulating that no bill contain more than one subject. SB2 combined 14 bills.

Now school districts contend the same bill puts them in the uncomfortable position of having to raise taxes to support schools over which they have no authority. They want lawmakers to find a statewide method of funding charter schools. Charter school proponents, meanwhile, say it's reasonable that districts pay money to educate children they would be educating anyway if charter schools did not exist.

"Parents who send their kids to charter schools pay property taxes, and they ought to be able to benefit from those taxes the same as any other child," said Brian Allen, chairman of the State Charter School Board.

Charter schools operate under a specific mission or "charter" apart from the public school system, but have received public funding from the Legislature since their inception about 10 years ago. Because charter schools have no geographic boundaries, they cannot levy taxes like school boards that oversee traditional public schools.

The Legislature paid operating costs for state charter schools for years, but those costs have grown as more students attend the schools. Using a complex funding formula that distributes money to charter schools from the school district in which charter school students reside, the omnibus education bill changed all that by requiring Utah school districts to pay one quarter of "replacement costs," typically defined as money charter schools lose because they do not have taxing authority.

Martin Bates, Granite School District assistant superintendent, said that to pay its nearly $500,000 contribution to charter schools this school year, the board voted in July to raise property taxes to come up with the money. "What's happened is that in the last month or so all the districts in the state have needed to adopt their budgets to the fiscal year," Bates said. "There are significant dollar amounts going from the local school boards to the charter schools." Noel Zabriskie, superintendent of Ogden School District, which paid $132,000 toward charter schools this school year, said he believes charter schools should have a funding mechanism apart from school districts.

"It's taking money away from students we're currently serving," Zabriskie said. "You either take away from current students, or raise taxes. That's not a good choice."

Charter school popularity

According to the State Office of Education, during the 2006-07 school year, 51 charter schools operated in Utah, serving 19,211 students.