A new charter school serving Princeton, South Brunswick, Plainsboro and West Windsor is set to open in September and school administrators in the three districts are not very happy.

   That’s because the charter school — the Princeton International Academy Charter School, approved Jan. 11 by the state Department of Education — will be funded by the three home districts, complicating their upcoming budget discussions and taking money away from their educational programs.

   The school boards — and, by extension, the public — will have no say on how the money is spent aside from periodic reviews by the state, raising potential issues of fiscal accountability.

   Charter schools are public educational facilities that operate within approved areas, but independently of their home school districts. They draw students and funding from those districts, but are governed by a private board of trustees and have no ties to the districts that provide them with the cash to operate.

   Many of the schools have been successful educationally, but it remains unclear whether their successes are based on their ability to draw the best students away from local districts or because their educational programs offer more than the public schools with which they compete.

   The new Princeton-area school — the second serving Princeton and one of 76 that are expected to be operating in the state in September — will teach students through a “Mandarin-English dual language immersion” and “International Baccalaureate curriculum framework,” according to a press release.

   Organizers of the new charter school, which includes educational professionals and local residents, say it will offer the kind of skills needed for success in an increasingly globalized world.

   ”The vision of Princeton International Academy Charter School,” according to its Web site, “is to educate young people of all backgrounds consistent with the highest ideals of human development, participatory democracy, and social justice with fluency in two international languages — Chinese and English — to promote a peaceful, ethical, and equitable world. PIACS students will be advocates, leaders, and change agents skilled as thinkers, communicators, and risk-takers who are knowledgeable, caring, and reflective in asking important questions and collaborating wisely, creatively and effectively for answers.”

   We have no quibbles with the school’s mission and believe that, if the school succeeds, it will produce graduates who will do a lot of good in the world.

   Our concern is with a funding mechanism that cuts the public out of the loop.

   The Princeton Charter School, for instance, one of the state’s first, receives about $14,000 per student for its nearly 300 students, according to the 2007-2008 State School Report Card —which works out to more than $4 million. The Princeton Regional School District provides about 54 percent of the funding, with the rest coming from the state and federal governments.

   The more than $2 million provided by the school district comes out of its public budget — a spending plan that must meet state cap rules and goes to voters for approval. That complicates local budgeting.

   If the state is committed to the charter school program, it should relieve local districts of funding schools they have no control over. The state should provide 100 percent of charter funding, leaving local tax dollars in the hands of local educators.