State Laws Need to Allow for More Charter School Growth, Report Says
Allie Bidwell, U.S. News & World Report
Most states throughout the country need laws that give charter schools more flexibility to grow in order to accommodate the demand and anticipated growth of school-aged children during the next two decades, according to a report released Monday from the Center for Education Reform.
In its annual report evaluating charter school laws across the country, the pro-school choice organization said that of the 43 states with charter school laws, fewer than half earned above-average grades. The organization assesses charter school laws based on their construction and implementation and whether they yield the desired outcomes for charter school policy. Today, more than 2.5 million students attend 6,400 charter schools in the United States, but the authors of the report said the growth seen during the last 20 years is not enough, given the fact that census data predict that during the next two decades, more than 11 million children are expected to start school.
Overall, the report found a lack of specificity in many state charter school laws leaves charter schools “subject to the whims of politicians.” The organization said strong charter laws would allow for multiple independent charter school authorizers, few limits on expansion, equitable funding and high levels of school autonomy.
“With the length of the average charter school waiting list increasing to nearly 300 students, there absolutely needs to be a sense of urgency around creating strong charter school laws that will accelerate the pace of growth to meet demand,” said Kara Kerwin, president of the CER, in a statement.
Topping the list was the District of Columbia, closely followed by Minnesota, Indiana, Michigan and Arizona, which all received A’s. Another nine states earned B’s, 18 earned C’s, eight earned D’s and three – Virginia, Iowa and Kansas – received F’s. Alison Consoletti Zgainer, executive vice president of CER and lead author of the rankings said in a statement the highest levels of charter school and enrollment growth occur in areas with strong charter school laws.
According to data from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the District of Columbia experienced a 62 percent growth in the number of charter schools between the 2003-04 school year and the 2013-14 school year, up to 60 from 37 schools. Likewise, charter schools in Minnesota grew by 47.5 percent during the same years, from 101 schools to 149.
By comparison, the number of charter schools in Kansas has actually decreased in the same time, from 14 in 2003-04 to 11 in 2013-14.
While neither Minnesota nor Kansas cap charter school growth, state law in Kansas allows for just one authorizing option for charter schools (the local school board and the state board of education), whereas Minnesota’s law allows for seven different options, such as local school boards, charitable nonprofits that meet certain criteria, private colleges and public postsecondary institutions.
While the CER report said even the highest-rated states have a long road ahead before allowing charter school options to “flourish,” Billy Easton, executive director of the New York-based Alliance for Quality Education, says state laws need to be stricter when it comes to charter schools.
“There’s been a dramatically rapid growth of charter schools in New York and in other states that does not address a lot of important issues,” Easton says. “They serve less English language learners, less students with disabilities, less students with serious family issues. There are issues about high turnover rates, high suspension rates in charter schools.”
“I think it’s important that state laws hold charter schools to the same standards that we hold public schools to, that they can’t cherry pick students, that they can’t counsel students out, and that the books have to be open and transparent for the public,” Easton adds.
Critics have said charter schools threaten the infrastructure of America’s public school system because they take away much-needed public funds from schools that often times are already struggling financially.
Several studies have also questioned whether students at charter schools perform any better than their peers at traditional public schools, with some finding charter schools had no significant impact, or that they only worked well in urban areas. A report released Saturday by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Economic Outcomes found charter school students in Los Angeles learned more than those in traditional public schools, for example.
Public education advocates, such as education historian Diane Ravitch and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, have also expressed concern that the charter school movement has departed from its original mission of identifying best practices to help public schools drifted toward a movement to privatize public education.
Still, Americans’ views on public charter schools remains supportive. The 2013 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll on the public’s attitudes toward public education found nearly 70 percent of Americans support public charter schools, and about 66 percent support new public charter schools in their communities. More than half also said they would support a large increase in the number of public charter schools in the United States and that they believe students receive a better education at public charters than at other public schools.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is facing several lawsuits relating to his recent decision to block three charter schools from sharing spaces with public schools. Supporters of the nonprofit charter school operator Success Academy Charter Schools, run by Eva Moskowitz, blasted de Blasio’s decision. The operator is filing two separate lawsuits: a federal civil rights lawsuit regarding one middle school that would be prevented from opening, and a separate effort to reverse the decision to keep two elementary schools from opening.
One de Blasio supporter, Public Advocate Letitia James, also said the mayor didn’t go far enough in curbing the schools’ growth, as he left a majority of charter space-sharing proposals untouched, and said she would sue to shut down all co-located charter schools.
But New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo voiced his support during a March 4 rally for charter schools in Albany, N.Y.
“We know that too many public schools are failing,” Cuomo said. “The education industry has said the same thing for decades: more money, and more money, and more money, and it will change. We spend more money per pupil than any state in the nation; we’re number 32 in results. It’s not just about putting more money in the public school system, it’s trying something new and that’s what charter schools are all about.”
Cuomo said that although “not every charter school has been great,” the movement overall has been a success.
“I am committed to ensuring charter schools have the financial capacity, the physical space, and the government support to thrive and to grow,” Cuomo said.
