For the last 20 years, charter schools have gained popular and political attention as a possible way to fix the perceived problems within the America’s educational system. Charter schools offer the promise of innovation and provide school choice to those unsatisfied with their current public school system. The issue of charter schools, however, is complex and often contentious. Recent findings call into question their effectiveness at a time when a nationwide push is being made to expand the number of charter schools in the United States.
A charter school is a secular public school that operates under a “charter” or a contract that determines its operation. This charter sets the organization, management, curriculum, and method of how the school will measure student performance. Charters typically last for 3 to 5 years. (In New Jersey initial charters are 4 year). They may be founded by teachers, parents, activists, non-profit groups, universities, or may be state authorized. Corporations may be permitted to manage chains of charter schools, and in many instances they are run for profit.
Like public schools, charter schools are publicly funded. They must have open enrollment, and cannot discriminate based on student ability, disability, race, color, religion, gender, or national origin. Preference is given to students living in the district and acceptance is based on space available. When there are no spots left, remaining applicants are place in a lottery. Students must take state mandated performance test and meet AYP.
An important difference between public and charters schools is that charters have much greater autonomy when hiring, creating curriculum and managing its budget. The regulatory freedom they receive is in exchange for their charters being reviewed, renewed, or revoked by the agency that authorized it. This autonomy allows charters to try innovative approaches, such as having longer school days and a longer academic year.
In many areas the demand for charter schools cannot be met. There are an estimated 350,000 students nationwide on waiting lists for acceptance into charters. For many families in poor performing school districts, charter schools offer a chance to get out a system widely viewed as broken.
The popularity of charter schools can be seen in the political support it has received, especially in recent years. In the wake of the well-received film, “Waiting for Superman,” both Congress and President Obama have put their focus on increasing the number of charter schools nationwide. They want to see a removal of the caps 26 states place on the number of charters allowed. As a part of the revamping of No Child Left Behind, a recent bill supporting expansion of charter schools passed in the house with bipartisan support.
In addition to increased political support, there have recently been many high profile donations made by celebrities to charter schools. The Bill Gates Foundation has given millions to charters and recently, Mark Zuckerberg pledged 100 million dollars to charter schools in Newark, NJ.
Locally, the state of New Jersey has continued to see growth of charter schools and as of April 2011, there were 73 operating charter schools with 23 approved to begin this past September. 23,490 students in NJ attend charter schools. 17 of the state’s 21 counties have charter schools and this year two online “virtual” charter schools were approved.
Despite the popular appeal of charters, there is considerable opposition to them and some evidence to support the idea that charter schools are not a panacea. The University of Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) published a landmark study in 2009 that called into question the effectiveness of charter schools. According to the study, only 17% of charters performed better than their public school counterpart, while 46% did the same and 37% fared worse. The findings were in direct contrast with the message spread in “Waiting for Superman,” which ignored the findings of the study.
In response to the study, secretary of education, Arne Duncan reacted by saying that the focus should be on quality not quantity. This goes against President Obama and congress’ push for more charters. In New Jersey’s Governor Christie is a big proponent of charter schools and wants to see their number increase significantly. He would also like to see them privatized and also advocates allowing private and parochial schools to become charter schools, which has met resistance. Barbara Keshishian, president of the NJEA’s response was that at a time when over a billion dollars has been cut from state school spending, it is a bad time to spend 360 million on unaccountable private and religious schools. To have existing private schools sign up as a charter and suddenly have its tuition paid by taxpayers seems hard to fathom.
In general, the success of charter schools mirrors that of public schools. There are exemplary ones and unsatisfactory ones. One of the strengths of charters is the idea that if a school is not reaching its goals, it could be closed. Unfortunately, it is often the case that charters do not close when doing poorly. There are also studies that have uncovered embezzlement and tampering with school records. When a school is run for profit, the question of primary goals arises. Is the school trying to educate students or make money? To have large corporations managing charter schools seems problematic. The larger the company, the more political clout they have.
Other negatives charter schools deal with is that they have no set standards, limited extra-curricular activities, and their budgets come directly from their districts. Local public schools get less money to run their programs, making it increasingly difficult to be effective and competitive. The funding charters received to only about 80% of their budget, meaning they are often underfunded and must find money elsewhere. Working conditions, pay, benefits and job security are subpar when compared to other traditional schools. A Vanderbilt study reported that teacher turnover was 132% higher in charter schools than in traditional public schools.
When operated properly, charter schools can provide a model of what works that can be emulated by traditional public schools. The effort to increase the number of charters calls into questions whether these schools that are rushing to open can properly meet the needs of our students.
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