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School taxes in a simplified form. Collier County collects property taxes. The State sets a mileage rate for all countries to put toward the operating fund for all schools in Florida called the required local effort. Collier County collects the money and is sent to the State. The State then redistributes this money to the school districts based on a FTE (Full Time equivalent) student numbers. This is for the daily operating expenses of the school. I assume this is what they refer to as funding following a student. If a school has 100 students they get FTE funding from the state for 100 students. Again by statute, this is for operating expenses only. Charter schools are eligible for up to 98% of the FTE based on the charter with the local school board. The rest of the local taxes collected for CC are kept in Collier County for Capital expenses. A charter school has no ability to get these funds based on statute. They are only eligible for the FTE Operating funds that come from the State, not local Capital funds. If the 98% of FTE is not enough, or they need funds for Capital Projects, they would have to come up with those funds themselves.