By · Published June 22, 2026 · Updated June 24, 2026

DC Charter School Funding Fight 2026 — Why Families Say the FY2027 Budget Is Unfair

In June 2026, nearly 400 charter-school parents and advocates packed the DC Council chamber over a single budget decision: Mayor Muriel Bowser put about $85 million for DC Public Schools outside the funding formula that is supposed to fund DCPS and charter schools equally per student. Charter families called it unfair to nearly half of DC's public-school children. "I was shocked this cycle to learn that DC government isn't funding the public schools equally," parent Devin Lambert told NBC4.

This is a plain-language explainer of the fight: what the $85 million is, why "outside the formula" matters, the decades-old equity dispute behind it, and how the FY2027 budget was finalized on June 23, 2026. Every figure links to its source.

The $85 million, in plain terms

Bowser's proposed FY2027 budget funded two DCPS priorities outside the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (UPSFF), according to Council Chairman Phil Mendelson:

Out-of-formula DCPS fundingAmount
Facility maintenance$60 million
Teacher pay$25 million
Total outside the formula~$85 million

Because this money runs around the per-student formula, it benefits DCPS students but is not matched per-pupil for charter students (NBC4). Mendelson sided with the charter sector: "What the mayor did with this budget is she funded two important initiatives for DCPS outside the formula, and that's what has the charter sector upset - rightfully upset."

What the UPSFF is and why "outside the formula" matters

DC funds DCPS and public charter schools using the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula - a single per-pupil dollar amount meant to keep funding levels equal across both sectors (NBC4). It traces to the DC School Reform Act of 1995, which requires public operating funds be distributed on a uniform per-student basis. Bowser's proposed FY2027 foundation level was $15,455 per student, a 2.55% increase (Mayor's office).

The charter argument is structural: charters cannot tap the city's capital budget, so when money moves into non-formula categories, charters have no equivalent. "We don't have access to the capital budget, so when you move money around to these other categories, it means that charter schools have to figure out ways to fund their operations," DC Charter School Alliance Executive Director Ariel Johnson told NBC4.

The per-pupil gap

The Charter School Alliance calculated that the proposed budget created a per-pupil gap of about $1,850 in favor of DCPS students when it was released in April; by June, NBC4 and WTOP cited a gap closer to $2,000 per pupil. Johnson warned the impact is concrete: "for some of our smaller schools that might only serve 300 or 400 kids, that could be $2 million of funding for those students that they're not going to see this year," with the risk of "teachers maybe being laid off or specialty programs being curtailed or cut."

The facilities gap

A big piece of the fight is buildings. In the mayor's operating budget, the Washington Informer reports, charter schools receive $187 million for facilities while DCPS receives $484 million. Charters get a flat per-pupil facilities allowance (set in DC Code § 38-2908 and escalated 3.1% a year) rather than access to DCPS's capital budget - and the proposed FY2027 Budget Support Act would have paused that annual escalator.

The mayor's defense

The Deputy Mayor for Education's office said the proposed budget still provides $1.45 billion for public charter schools, up $52.6 million over FY2026, and maintains more than $187 million in charter facilities funding (NBC4). Putting the DCPS costs back through the formula, the office told WTOP, "would have required an increase of $100 million into the budget which the District simply doesn't have available at a time of declining revenues."

Notably, this is framed by charter leaders as a systems issue, not a turf war. "This is not a charter school versus public school issue," said KIPP DC board member Brandon Woods (NBC4).

This fight is not new

DC has had this argument for over a decade. In 2014, the DC Association of Chartered Public Schools and two charter schools sued the District, arguing DCPS got supplemental funds outside the UPSFF in violation of the School Reform Act. A federal district court ruled against the charters in 2017, and in 2019 the DC Circuit dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds - not on the merits - holding that the School Reform Act is local DC law, not federal.

The dispute recurs almost every budget cycle because non-formula local dollars went from a rare emergency tool to a regular funding source from FY2022 onward, a shift documented by the DC Policy Center, intensified by the end of federal pandemic aid.

Why it matters: nearly half of DC's students

This is not a niche issue. About 130 public charter campuses serve more than 48,000 students - nearly half of all DC public-school students (NBC4, DC Charter School Alliance). DC has one of the highest charter market shares of any city in the country. For more on the sector, see our DC charter schools report and DC public schools funding overview.

Where it stands (final budget, June 23, 2026)

The Council did not leave the gap untouched. At its first vote on June 9, 2026, it raised the UPSFF increase from the proposed 2.55% to 3.84% (a foundation level of $15,648), generating about $15.7 million in additional formula funding for charters, and it reversed the proposed pause on the facilities escalator, restoring $42.3 million over the four-year plan. The Alliance said this narrowed the roughly $2,000 per-pupil gap by about 30% - progress, but not full parity.

On June 23, 2026, the Council took its final vote to pass the FY2027 Local Budget Act, ratifying those education figures unchanged: the $15,648 UPSFF foundation, the ~$15.7 million in added charter formula funding, and the restored facilities escalator are now locked into the final budget. The package also included $2.7 million for St. Coletta PCS and a partial restoration of adult-education funding. "Today's vote is a meaningful step forward for the nearly half of all DC public school students who attend public charter schools - but structural funding disparities remain, and the work is far from over," said Alliance Executive Director Ariel Johnson.

The broader budget passed amid a fiscal dispute: the Council restored about $400 million of the mayor's proposed cuts using roughly $150 million in reserves, which Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee warned could complicate certification. The budget now moves to the mayor and then to Congress for federal review. The charter funding gap has been narrowed, not closed - and a separate final vote on the Budget Support Act, expected in July, does not change the charter dollars already set in the Local Budget Act.

Bottom line

The 2026 charter funding fight is the latest round of a structural DC argument: a per-student formula meant to keep two public-school sectors equal, repeatedly bent by money routed around it. Bowser's $85 million in out-of-formula DCPS funding reopened it; the Council narrowed the gap in the final FY2027 budget but did not close it; and with a new mayor incoming in 2027, the underlying tension - how to fund a fixed DCPS footprint and a charter sector that now educates nearly half the city's students - is not going away.

Sources

Published June 22, 2026. Updated June 24, 2026 with the final June 23 budget vote.