Giving Compass' Take:

• The recent school board meeting for districts in Chicago brought up the controversy over equitable funding for charter and district schools. 

• Where can education leaders find common ground on equitable funding for Chicago schools? Do other districts have replicable funding models that are successful at navigating charter and district disputes?

• Read about how Chicago's new mayor is going to change the education system. 

With anxiety running high and a new mayor on the way, an array of Chicago charter school leaders appeared before the board of education Wednesday to press the school district about their needs — from new facilities to new school budgets and the release of millions in withheld funds.

Karen Ratliff, president of the board of Art in Motion charter high school, urged Chicago’s school board to clear one of its last hurdles for opening a fine arts school: approving a building in the South Shore community. Distinctive Schools, a Chicago group that manages four other charter schools in the city, will manage the school, and first secured a charter in 2017.

But the most contentious issue brought up by charter schools at Wednesday’s board meeting involved charter school funding. Chicago Public Schools is withholding nearly $50 million in fourth-quarter funding from charter schools, and hasn’t released their school budgets for next year amid a standoff over how the city funds them. The dispute continues as the city awaits the inauguration next month of mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot, who pledged to enact a moratorium on new charter schools until she has time to study the issue and examine the district’s relationship with charters.

The district said that it had to withhold the funds to comply with the state funding range for charters, and is working to change that law in order to fund charters more equitably, comparable to district schools. But the district and charter schools disagree over the funding range and other issues and haven’t managed to bring a proposal to lawmakers.

Meanwhile, charter leaders said, their schools are hurting.

Read the full article about charter school facilities and funds by Adeshina Emmanuel at Chalkbeat.