Riverhead physics teacher Gregory Wallace doesn’t mince words when discussing the impact corporate charter schools have on the state’s most vulnerable public schools, like his. “It’s decimating our district,” Wallace said.

Each year, Riverhead Charter School skims millions of dollars off the top of the Riverhead Central School District budget, said Wallace former Riverhead Educator of the Year. “There are approximately 540 students in the charter school from Riverhead Central School District — so $10.2 million comes right off the top of our budget.”

That’s a significant loss for a district that’s already struggling to recover from unequal Foundation Aid. Riverhead is part of the Harmed Suburban Five, so named because they are part of a contingent of Long Island districts that receive less than 55 percent of Foundation Aid -- 25 percent less than the statewide average.

School budgets have always been contentious in Riverhead. Two years ago, the unthinkable happened: the Riverhead district budget was voted down twice, forcing administrators to limit spending to a state-set cap and make deep cuts to programming.

The athletics program, school clubs, performing arts, and all after-school buses were all eliminated outright. Technology, science, literacy, and high school electives were also severely cut to bridge the gap. In all, $2.1 million had to be stripped from the budget, nearly the same amount that payments to charter schools increased that same year - $2.3 million.

“Our students lost services. Our students lost sports. Our students lost extracurricular activities. The charter school made no sacrifice,” said Wallace, president of the Riverhead Teachers Association. “They say they’re a public school, but they’re really a private entity, funded with public money. There’s very little accountability of where that money goes or how that money is spent.”

Wallace said charter schools prey on Black and brown communities and overemphasize test scores as an indicator of quality education, when test scores are most often the symptom of much larger socioeconomic inequities. But weaponizing test scores has proven effective, because in so doing, the charter schools have been able to drain resources from public schools, which has in turn kneecapped public schools and increased demand for charter schools.

“Ninety-nine percent of the people in our country have been educated in a public education system. We have one of the strongest economies that’s ever been created, and it’s a result of our public education system. Just abandoning public education and saying it doesn’t work is a fallacy,” Wallace said. “Public schools are not the cause of the issues we’re having in this country; they are the symptom.”