Innovation in public education is a good thing. You can hear it in the voices of students from Pathways High, where diverse needs are met through personal attention and creative collaboration.

The state sends a different signal, however — especially when it comes to funding those students.

Independent charter schools like Pathways are public schools. Yet they receive thousands of dollars less per student than traditional public schools.

For kids like Gianna, Mariel and Darcel, the message is loud and clear. You are immediately worth less when your needs are different.

That’s why, in the words of Board President Julia Burns, “The state Legislature needs to get to funding parity for these schools. Bottom line.”

“One of my boys, who is the hardest sell when it comes to school or anything educational or traditional,” said Beata Abraham, mother of two Pathways High students, “he came home, and he said to me something that brought tears to my eyes. He said, ‘I feel like they get me here and they let me be who I am.’”

It all works — provided the fundraising keeps up.

The school, a public school, gets $9,200 per pupil from taxpayers, the funding Wisconsin offers to all charter schools. There is no additional funding for facilities. By contrast, the average district public school in Wisconsin spends about $15,300 per child, the latest “total education cost,” according to the Department of Public Instruction.

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