In a blow to charter school advocates in New York State and elsewhere, a state appellate court ruled against five Western New York families who brought a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of how the state funds charter schools.

New York follows funding formulas that provide less public money to charters than to traditional schools. The lawsuit claims this discrepancy -- estimated at somewhere between 60 and 80 cents on the dollar, depending on the schools -- violated mandates in the education section of New York’s Constitution. The Education Article states: "The legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free common schools, wherein all the children of this state may be educated."

The lawsuit contends that those "free common schools" include charters, and that the state should provide them with more money to build and maintain their facilities.

The court disagreed. In issuing their opinion last week, the judges of the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, unanimously reversed an order by a State Supreme Court justice to allow the suit to continue and stated, “The charter school funding scheme of the State of New York has not been shown in this case to be unconstitutional.”