Dearest reader,
A reader sent Lady Budgetdown a thoughtful concern today about one of the districts previously examined: what about the charter schools surrounding a traditional public-school district?
Could they affect enrollment? Absolutely.
So, rather than dismissing the question, I decided to test it.
And approximately 20 minutes later, I was reminded exactly why charter schools are not part of my standard district workups.
With a traditional public-school district, the process is relatively consistent. I can pull enrollment, staffing, administrative FTE, financial data and compensation disclosures from largely comparable public records.
In 20 minutes, I would normally be finishing Steps 2 & 2A and quite possibly moving into Step 3.
Today, those same 20 minutes were spent trying to answer one charter-school question.
Why?
Because charter schools can operate very differently.
One nearby charter disclosed its lead administrator's 2025 total compensation clearly:
Voyageur Academy — $151,955.19
Another disclosed:
Hope of Detroit Academy — $359,909.64
Then I opened Universal Academy.
Its disclosure states:
"Universal Academy does not have any employees."
Not because nobody works there.
Its staff are employed by Hamadeh Educational Services, the Educational Service Provider that supplies the academy's personnel.
The document I found provides average teacher and support-staff salaries, but not the same individual administrator-compensation disclosure I can routinely obtain from a traditional district.
And there, dearest reader, is the problem.
To make a legitimate statewide comparison involving charter schools, I couldn't simply add another column to my existing ledger.
I would have to determine, charter by charter:
Who actually employs the staff?
Is there a management company?
Which expenses sit with the academy and which sit with the management company?
Is administrator compensation disclosed by the academy, the management company, or somewhere else?
Are staffing numbers measuring employees of the school or employees assigned to the school?
And can any of those numbers actually be compared fairly with the traditional district sitting beside them?
That's an entirely different research project.
And Lady Budgetdown is one person.
This page has never claimed to measure every possible variable affecting every school district. The goal is to apply a consistent methodology to comparable public-school districts, using the same sources and definitions as often as the records allow.
Does that mean charter schools are irrelevant?
No.
In today's example, nearby charter schools could absolutely be relevant when discussing enrollment and where families choose to send their children. That's a legitimate consideration, and I'm glad the reader raised it.
But incorporating charter schools into every financial and staffing workup would require an entirely separate methodology, and today's little 20-minute rabbit hole demonstrated exactly why.
Sometimes good methodology isn't about collecting every number you can possibly find.
It's about knowing which numbers can actually be compared.
And knowing when they can't. 🪶
With receipts and respect,
Lady Budgetdown
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