#13INVESTIGATES -- Misty Freiberg has had a positive experience sending her kids to the Academy of Classical Education in Macon.
"I love ACE! My daughter is the oldest [and] I've got two children there," she said.
She's totally on board with their recent decision to move from a local to a state charter school.
"With them going to a state charter school, that is a better curriculum for the kids. The teachers, their salaries will increase, they'll answer to the state board instead of the Bibb County Board," Freiberg said.
The major difference now is how ACE gets its money.
RELATED: 'We can't get into ACE:' Macon's Academy for Classical Education changes to state charter school
"The state goes through a formula based on the number of children you report, the number of teachers that you have, the categories of the children and they provide an amount of money, and then we also get a piece of what the local board of education raises in taxes," said Bibb County Governing Board Chairman Witt Gaither.
He is referring to a formula called the state's Quality Basic Education, or QBE funding.
As a Bibb County Charter School, ACE receives about $3,900 of QBE funding per student from the state, and $3,400 from the county.
As a state charter, they won't get any money from the Bibb County School District. Instead, they'll get a state commissioned supplement of about $5,000 per student on top of the QBE funding.
"The commission supplement is what replaces local fair share. That number for us is bigger," Gaither said.
They'll go from receiving about $12 million as a locally approved charter this school year to more than $15 million as a state charter next school year.
Gaither says the extra money will be used to increase teacher pay and hire more administrative staff to deal with students' needs.
"I've always wanted to make sure that our salaries that we provide to our faculty and staff are at or better than the state pay scale," Gaither said.
Part of the money each year has to help pay off ACE's $35 million bond with the Urban Development Authority. They have more than 30 years of payments left on it.
Alex Morrison is with the UDA, which issued the bond and BB&T Bank underwrote it.
"They were able to qualify for bond financing for the purchase and additional expansion of their facility," Morrison said.
The bond allowed ACE to buy its campus and make some improvements.
He says the change to a state charter won't put local taxpayers on the hook.
"Their switching to a state charter verses local has no impact whatsoever on local taxpayer dollars, taxpayer securities or the repayment of the bond," Morrison said.
"There is no taxpayer liability or responsibility for repaying those bonds at any level. It is solely on the Academy for Classical Education, Inc. no one else," Gaither said.
Gaither says they'll pay the bonds back through fundraisers, the state supplement and QBE funds without putting local taxpayers at risk.
The state charter allows students from other counties to apply for enrollment, but Gaither says they plan on keeping the same 20 students per class size.