For the first time in five years, the School Reform Commission has opened the application process for new charter schools. As the year came to a close, so did Walter Palmer Charter School, the third to shutter its doors this year. Now, 40 applicants are vying to replace them.

From schools like KIPP or New Foundations Charter that are looking to expand their already established operations to new proposals from communities, like those looking to repurpose the former Germantown High School, a school district and SRC representative listened to pitches and probed into whether the schools could be successful in the areas proposed. No leaders from the SRC or district were present at the preliminary pitches, although the SRC is required to make a decision on the applications in February. Applicants can later appeal to the state.

The hearings have come at the same time as an Associated Press report revealed the widening funding gap between low and high-income school districts in Philadelphia. The governor’s administration is pointing to low-income district’s expansion of charter schools as a reason behind the gap.

In the past four years since Governor Tom Corbett took office, the gap between what the highest-income districts spend per student every year versus what the lowest-income spend doubled. In 2011, the difference was $1700. Now, it's nearly $4,000. 

In Philadelphia as in other districts throughout the state, charters have grown to account for one in four schools. The state has since stopped funding the additional costs needed to accommodate the extra schools.

Still, much of the widening gap is due to the shift of funding from the state to the local level so that the amount spent per student relies heavily on the locality’s property tax base. Governor-elect Tom Wolf has said that he supports returning to a 50 percent state-funding education system (from a 35 percent state-funded system), but has not presented any specific plans to implement the change. Even with that plan, low-income districts with a poorer tax base would still have fewer funds to invest in their students than districts with an affluent tax base.