Eight of the state's 10 currently open charter schools have formed an association with two goals. One is to develop a way to share their innovative ideas with traditional public schools. The group's other purpose is to lobby lawmakers for a reliable source of funding for charter schools.

"Without a change in the funding, several charter schools will close," said Bill Wilmot, head of the Seacoast Charter School in Exeter, an arts-based school with 50 students in grades one through six.

Five charter schools, including Wilmot's, will face closure next year if lawmakers don't funnel more money to them, association members said. The schools, which are public and open to all students regardless of where they live, receive about $3,700 per student in state money this year.

But it costs anywhere from $7,000 to $9,000 per student to properly run a school, members said. What schools don't get from the state, they make up for with other, short-term grants.

The New Hampshire Public Charter School Association would like lawmakers to find a permanent solution to their money woes by fully funding charter schools, which now serve about 400 students statewide and have even more on waiting lists.

But some legislators are hesitant. At a chili cook-off held by the association in the dim State House cafeteria yesterday, dozens of lawmakers lined up to grab Styrofoam cups of chili and sour cream.

However, not all of them said they support charter schools.

"Do the right thing; vote for charter schools," Eileen Liponis, Seacoast's development director, called to lawmakers waiting in the chili line. Rep. Henry Parkhurst, a Winchester Democrat, shook his head.

"Never," he said.

"Why?" Liponis said, looking taken aback.

"They're private schools," Parkhurst said. "Public money should be used for public schools."

The Legislature has a long history with charter schools, marked by confusion and contention. In 2003, the state was granted $7.2 million for a 10-year pilot program to establish up to 20 schools.

The first schools opened in 2004, and within a year, at least one of them - the Franklin Career Academy - was in financial trouble. Local school districts refused to pay the charter school the per-student money it was owed under what was then law, eventually causing the school to close for a year.

In 2006, lawmakers fixed the law to ensure charter schools got the per-student aid directly from the state. But by then, other charter schools were predicting that they too would be financially unstable; the schools had come to rely on start-up grants that were set to run out, leaving them low on funds.

The schools pinned their hopes on the Legislature, but lawmakers didn't deliver the cash infusion they hoped for, despite a few attempts. Last year, the result was the same. With no permanent solution in sight, lawmakers added $800,000 to the state budget at the last minute to keep the state's three oldest charter schools - which ran out of their start-up funds sooner than the others - afloat. They also imposed a two-year moratorium on new charter schools until a lasting funding formula is in place.

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