In September of 2004, there were two. By the end of the last school year, there were six. But over the summer, one closed because it didn't have enough money. This week, another opened and several more are in the works.

Charter schools seem to be catching on statewide, and more students from Berlin to Goffstown are enrolling in the small, highly focused public schools. But while the schools report academic success, paying the bills has proven more difficult. And it only promises to get harder unless state lawmakers make major changes, an option that not everyone involved sees as probable.

It has been three years since the state secured $7.2 million in federal grants for a 10-year pilot program to establish up to 20 charter schools in New Hampshire. The grants were to be divvied up among the schools, depending on their enrollment, and used to pay start-up costs for three years.

But the schools, many in their second year, have come to rely on that money. With only $3,500 per student from the state, and per-pupil costs between $6,000 and $10,000, school officials say they use that money to fill the gaps. Towns do it with local taxes, but because charter schools are open-enrollment schools, meaning anyone can attend, they don't have that option.

All charter school officials interviewed for this story said they're worried about their schools' uncertain financial future. With the grant money scheduled to run out next year, they said, they've started to put together contingency plans and look to the state government.

"The state has put us in a precarious place," said Emily Hamilton, director of the Seacoast Charter School in Stratham.

Part of the "enchantment" with charter schools is that they pledge to teach kids better for less money, said Sue Hollins, a charter school enthusiast and head of the New Hampshire Center for School Reform. Instead of following the traditional rules for mainstream public schools, charter schools follow a specific mission laid out when the school is founded, which gives them more freedom financially and academically.

But for the state to give charter schools so little money puts them in jeopardy, Hollins said.

"It's critical that the Legislature fix the law so the schools can survive," she said. "It's silly (to not fund it) when we have such a great program."

Hollins said two things need to be remedied: Lawmakers must change the rules so the $3,500 per student comes to charter schools directly from the state Department of Education and is not routed through local school districts. And the state needs to kick in more money.

Otherwise, charter schools could share the fate of the Franklin Career Academy. After a year of operation, the academy closed its doors because the city refused to forward state education money to the charter school. State education officials eventually stepped in, but by that time, school heads had already made the decision to shut down. (They hope to reopen in September.)

There are at least three bills before the Legislature that attempt to address the first problem. One would have the state Department of Education pay charter schools directly. Another clarifies the way the payments should be made and a third relaxes laws around charter schools to make them easier to start and sustain.

But so far, there aren't any bills that would pump extra money into charter schools. Officials at the Department of Education say that besides state money, the cash to fund charter schools can come from sources such as business partnerships, federal grants or private investors.

Some charter school officials are still hopeful that the state will come through monetarily. Lisa Lavoie, director of the North Country Charter Academy in Littleton and Lancaster, said she's confident because her school's goal of keeping at-risk students on-track to graduate fits with Gov. John Lynch's plan to reduce the high school dropout rate.

"Without programs like ours, the only other alternative education for kids up here is the GED program,"she said.

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