ensure equal funding for charter schools as promised in the State of Hawaii's Race to the Top grant.

Facilities funding has been a long-standing issue for charter schools in Hawaii. Start-up charter schools have paid the costs of their facilities from their limited operational funds since 2000. This year charter schools received about $6,000 per pupil while Department of Education schools receive an average of about $12,000 per pupil. The state public charter school commission is currently planning a facilities pilot project for the allocation of funds to various charter schools for small-scale facilities projects based, in part, on the “need and performance” of the charter schools. The commission has allocated $680,000 of 2013 federal impact aid to this pilot program despite an Attorney General opinion that federal impact aid funds cannot be used for this purpose.