By Kathleen Nugent, DFER NJ State Director
Charter schools are always public schools. They never charge tuition, and they accept any student who wants to attend. Charter laws require that students are admitted by a random lottery drawing in case too many students want to enroll in a single charter school.*
Charters, like traditional public schools, are meant to serve all kids regardless of demographic or socioeconomic background. Most charters serve specific geographic areas and some also serve targeted populations (e.g. single gender), or set preferences to fill underrepresented student populations (e.g. those who qualify for free and reduced lunch). Overall, charters are created to provide autonomy from the traditional system in order to foster innovation in practice with the goal of increased student achievement and success. This autonomy is granted in exchange for increased accountability. If a charter is unsuccessful, notably for student achievement, it should be closed in quick fashion.
While the concept behind charter schools is solid, we know in practice the implementation can be flawed. Some states and their authorizer(s) grant little autonomy to their charter sector, inhibiting their ability to fulfill their mission and making the alternative governance structure essentially moot. Other authorizers don’t enforce accountability for charters, allowing terrible practices like poor performance, creaming (when charters select which students enter their schools), and inferior operations, which in turn give the sector a bad name. To fix these problems, two key pieces of the solution are high quality authorization and strong charter laws that close loopholes and realize the ideal vision for charter school operation and growth.
The good news is there are widespread efforts nationwide to improve charter authorizer oversight and reform charter laws, with the ultimate goal of bringing an end to flawed implementation. This push is driven by several factors including the advocacy of key groups like the National Association of Charter School Authorizers as well as the increasing prominence of charters due to the success many have achieved and the support of high profile leaders such as President Obama. Charter school students may only comprise a small percentage of the country’s total public school population right now, but in cities like New Orleans and Washington, DC, they are serving significant percentages and reshaping what’s possible in urban education.