The March 18 editorial “A bad idea on charter schools’’ questions a state Senate proposal that would change the way charters are funded. The Globe fears that such a change could pit charters against traditional public schools and create a situation in which these parties “really would be competing for funding.’’ Well, that situation already exists.

Here is an example. The Gill-Montague Regional School District currently has 70 students attending area charter schools, with a net reduction of its fiscal 2016 funding by $856,223, or $12,232 per student, on average. These 70 students are spread across 13 grade levels and across five schools of origin.

With this distribution of student loss, it is not possible to send each student away with a $12,000 check attached and simply reduce district costs at a matching rate.

In fact, in most cases, such as the loss of three students from a rural elementary school classroom, where there is only one classroom per grade level, the reducible costs are almost nonexistent.

The costs to the district are very real, however. The district lacks sufficient numbers of reading teachers, special education staff, and counselors to support its students.

Reducing funds lost to charter schools would go a long way toward providing vital services and would better align charter funding with the realities of cost accounting in public schools.

Our district is open to learning lessons from area charter schools, and in fact we have a program that brings area charter high school students to work with some of our elementary students.

But while we may engage in partnerships over pedagogy, make no mistake, we are already polarized by funding.

Michael Sullivan

Superintendent of schools

Gill-Montague Regional

School District

Turners Falls