Charter School Retirement Funding Alternatives and Their Affects on North Carolina State Funding (2015)

Undergraduate: Mari Norcross

Faculty Advisor: Patrick Akos
Department: History

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Charter schools were implemented into North Carolina law almost two decades ago for educational policy and practice innovation. Current legislation pertaining to North Carolina charter schools and retirement funding states that charter schools can choose to participate in regulation state funding or opt-out and implement their own funding programs under corporate funding programs, such as a 401 (k) or 403 (b). This option was put in place by the state of North Carolina as an alternative to the standard North Carolina state law to test alternatives retirement funding options and see if these would benefit the state. In other studies throughout the United States with this same legislature a trend has identified that districts not required to include their teachers in Social Security tend to choose the alternative method of retirement funding, leaving them with more options. This research presents data collected from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction pertaining to state retirement funding and charter school alternative funding, the pros and cons of this option in North Carolina, which type of policy should be implemented statewide, and if an alternative policy would be more helpful than the current legislation.