Parents, educators urge Manatee County school board to restore sales-tax share for charter schools

Dozens of parents, educators and students on May 23 implored the Manatee County School Board to distribute part of the county’s half-cent sales tax to public charter schools, arguing the 2016 referendum was sold to voters as benefiting “all public school students.”

Speakers including former and current charter-school leaders, a high-school student and local educators described charter students as public school students and urged the board to reverse a 2023 decision that stopped additional sales-tax funding to charters. Commenters asked the board to make charter schools whole for the 2024-25 year and to include charter allocations in future capital budgets.

The remarks came during the board’s public-comment period and were repeated in the workshop that followed on the district’s capital budget and the sales-tax (surtax) revenue. Speakers said charter enrollment in Manatee County is roughly 20–21% of the district’s total and argued that excluding charters from some surtax-funded projects breaks a promise made to voters during the 2016 campaign.

"The sales-tax funds would benefit every student," Danielle Hartley, who identified herself as an educator and parent, told the board. "Citizens did not vote to exclude charter schools. Instead, this board made that decision." She and others asked the board to distribute the funds withheld for the 2024-25 school year and to ensure future budgets include charters.

Several speakers recounted the history: during the 2016 sales-tax renewal campaign, they said, district leaders solicited charter families' support and promised countywide benefits. Speakers said a subsequent board motion and later administrative choices narrowed distribution to district-run schools, and in August 2023 the board directed staff to stop additional sales-tax funding for charters.

Student speakers described the practical effects on programs they said support student achievement and later feed district high schools. "Over 20% of children in Manatee County attend public charter schools. So cutting the funding to charter schools is to deny 20% of children in our county the same funding," Addison Hartley, a tenth grader, told the board.

Charter leaders and advocates argued for equitable treatment and cited legislative changes they said favor charter access to local sales-tax distributions. Anne Wilson, who identified herself with Lakewood Ranch Preparatory Academy, asked the board to honor HB 1259 and pay charter schools their portion of the half-cent sales tax based on full-time-equivalent (FTE) enrollment.

Board members and district staff said they heard the public’s concerns and noted legal and administrative complexities. During the later workshop discussion on the district’s capital budget, staff presented how sales-tax, ad valorem and state capital funds are collected and used, and they laid out options for how the board could allocate surtax revenue to charters going forward. The board asked staff to model an option that would provide roughly half of the charter share in the 2025–26 capital year and to return numbers and scenarios for a future meeting.

The board made no final vote at the May 23 workshop. Several board members said they want to balance the equity questions raised by speakers with the district’s already-committed capital projects and maintenance needs. Some members expressed support for a phased approach that would begin additional charter distributions in the 2025–26 fiscal year and increase over time.

Speakers called on the board to be transparent, to return any withheld funds for 2024–25, and to treat charter-school students as county students in future planning. The public comment and workshop discussion set a timetable for staff to provide financial models and options at an upcoming meeting so board members can consider a policy change for the next capital budget.

Ending: The board did not take a formal vote on charter funding at the May 23 workshop. Staff were asked to prepare modeling of distribution options — including an option to begin splitting sales-tax capital revenue with charters at approximately 50% of their proportional share in 2025–26 — and return the numbers to the board for consideration at a coming meeting.