Last week, David Blank, the acting CEO of City Garden Montessori School, watched as $104,661 vanished from the school’s bank account. And City Garden wasn’t alone: All 18 St. Louis charter schools and all 20 in Kansas City saw money taken away, through no fault of their own, long after they’d spent it—clawed back by the state of Missouri.
And that’s not the end of the impact: In addition to the money that was pulled back Friday, Blank says the state’s new math will be putting a $400,000 dent in City Garden’s budget for the rest of the year.
Blank says he was initially stunned by the news that revisions to funding formulas would mean a big hit to the budget. Even now, as he’s come to terms with it, it’s a hard blow. “Even if we had the money that we thought we were supposed to get, it’s still challenging being in this business,” he says. “Now it’s just gotten a little bit more challenging.”…