A new study by the Independent Budget Office (IBO) has found that charter schools receive less public funding per pupil than traditional students, which is causing a stir in the charter school movement on both sides of the aisle.

The study, commissioned by the Manhattan borough president's appointed representative, Patrick Sullivan, found that charter schools housed in traditional public school buildings receive around $300 less per student. However, when a charter school is not housed in a traditional public school, the charter receives more than $3,000 less in public funding per student.

The IBO's analysis only looked at public funding and not private contributions that charter schools receive.

The main reason charter schools receive less funding than traditional public schools is due to the fact that the charter schools receive no funding for facilities, said James Merriman, the CEO of the New York City Charter School Center.

"And what that means is that they don't have access to public space. They have to use their operating funds to pay for buildings," he said. Charter schools not sharing public space in public school buildings "receive a lot less in terms of public support if they aren't in public space because that public space represents a major in-kind contribution."

However, many opponents to charter school administrators' practice of co-existing with "district" schools argue, in light of the study released in the last week of February, that charter schools still get private funding that compensates for the lack of public funding that New York City students don't have access to. They say that charter schools still receive large amounts of private donations and sophisticated technology to teach their students.

Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, said, "The difference between funding for public schools and charter schools in public buildings is negligible. When you add in the private funding that many charter schools get, I'm sure that we'll find that many charter schools have resources that are well beyond those of public schools."

Opponents of the way that charter schools are operated and financed say many charter schools coming into traditional public school buildings are creating separate and unequal environments and educations within the Black and Brown community, citing incidences in some charter schools over the sharing of space.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said in a statement, "Until the state's funding formula is revised and charter schools are eligible for capital dollars like other schools...we will continue to work with communities and parents across the city to find space for new charters when it is available and presents the right fit with other schools in a building."

Merriman told the Amsterdam News that there seems to be a choice to be made between opponents and advocates of charter schools: if someone doesn't want charter schools in public school space, then they should go to Albany and ask that charters get the same "equitable level of funding" as traditional public schools, he said in a phone interview.

But opponents to charter schools want more checks and balances on the way charter schools are created, funded and held accountable.

The NYC Department of Education, the Charter School Institute of SUNY and the State of Education Department, who are authorized to give the OK on charters that receive public and private funding, are free from the regular "constraints" in public education and are allowed to try different and new learning techniques that traditional schools often don't have the authority to do.