CHARTER SCHOOLS 101

Options Within Public Education: Flexibility, Accountability and Positive Outcomes for Students

What is a charter school?

Public charter schools are an important part of America’s public education system and have been meeting the unique needs of students for more than 30 years. Charter schools are always free, public, and open to all students.  

Charter schools are given flexibility and autonomy to design classroom instruction to best serve their community’s needs in exchange for rigorous accountability to the state, the authorizer, taxpayers and the parents and community they serve. 

CHARTER SCHOOL QUICK FACTS

MILLION STUDENTS
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CHARTER SCHOOLS
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CHARTER SCHOOL TEACHERS
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Charter schools serve students in 44 states, Guam, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. 46 states have passed legislation allowing charter schools to open.

Over the last five years, charter school enrollment has increased 12%.

Charter School Demographics Compared to District Schools

HOW DO CHARTER SCHOOLS WORK?

Authorization & Accountability

Charter schools are approved and monitored by authorizers, which are typically public agencies, such as local school districts or state departments of education. Authorizers approve, oversee, renew or close charter schools based on academic, financial and operational performance.

Funding

Public schools—both district and charter—have three primary sources of funding: federal, state, and local. On average, charter schools receive 75 cents for every dollar a traditional district receives. This gap is largely driven by the fact that most charter schools do not receive local tax funding for school facilities.

Leadership

Most charter schools (62%) are single-site schools; the remaining are part of larger charter school networks.

HOW DO CHARTER SCHOOL STUDENTS PERFORM?

Frequently Asked Questions About Charter Schools

How Many Charter Schools & Students Are There?

Public charter schools currently serve nearly 3.8 million students across 8,150 schools and campuses. In the 2022-23 school year, charter schools enrolled 7.6% of all public school students in America. Since the 2005-06 school year, the number of charter schools and campuses has more than doubled, while charter school enrollment has more than tripled. Learn more about charter schools in your state here. 

Who Attends Charter Schools?

According to the most recently available data (2022-23 school year), 60.5% of charter school students are Black or Brown, compared to 41.9% of district school students.

Charter schools have also consistently served a higher percentage of students who are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch (FRPL). In the 2022-23 school year, 61.4% of charter school students received FRPL compared to 54.4% in district school.

For state-by-state breakdowns of district and charter school demographics in the most recent available school year, please see the National Alliance’s data dashboard.

How Are Charter Schools Financed?

Public charter schools, specifically those that are their own LEAs or are part of a charter district, receive fewer dollars per pupil on average than district schools. Though there are year-to-year fluctuations, the average charter school receives 79 cents for every dollar the average district school receives in FY2021. 

In the most recent year of available data (2020-21 school year), the average charter school received approximately $3,500 less per student than the average district school. Per-pupil funding in charter schools is less than per-pupil funding in 25 of the 28 states for which we have data. Learn more at data.publiccharters.org.

Who Manages Charter Schools?

Most charter schools (57%) are freestanding, meaning the school is self-managed. The remaining 43% of charter schools contract with external organizations for management-related services such as staffing, curriculum, services for students with disabilities, facilities, and back-office support. Management structures and the relationships these external partners have with their schools vary considerably. In some cases, the management organizations provide limited services; in other cases, they may provide nearly all management-related services and directly hire educational staff.

The two types of management organizations are nonprofit charter management organizations (CMOs) and education management organizations (EMOs). CMOs account for 32% of charter schools nationwide, while EMOs manage 11% of charter schools. Learn more at data.publiccharters.org.

Who Authorizes Charter Schools?

Charter schools are allowed to operate by “authorizers.” Approximately 47% of charter schools are authorized by school districts (local educational agencies or LEAs). Lawmakers give authorizers the authority to approve, oversee, and renew charter schools. Authorizers are typically public agencies, such as local school districts and state departments of education. In some states, however, other governmental agencies (like a city or mayor’s office) might fulfill this role. Colleges and universities, independent charter boards (ICBs), and/or non-profit organizations might be given authorizing ability as well.

Authorizers decide whether or not a school may open, what standards must be met for it to remain open, and have the power to determine if a school must close. Charter schools must demonstrate success in order to retain and renew their charter, and authorizers hold these schools to the same (or often higher) accountability standards as their district-run peers. The National Alliance’s model law recommends multiple authorizers in every state; however, to date, 13 states only offer one authorizing option, and five only allow LEAs to authorize charter schools. The National Association of Charter School Authorizers defines which types of authorizers are allowed and operating in each state in their helpful resource Authorizer Types Across the Country.

How Do I Start a Charter School?

Charter schools can be started by any interested party, including parents, community members, and teachers.  It is common to see charter schools led by former teachers who wanted to take the lessons they learned in the classroom and scale them to an entire school community. It is helpful to first identify a unique need in the community that the charter school would serve and connect with a local charter school authorizer. You can learn more about the charter school authorizers in your state on the National Association of Charter School Authorizers website.

Visit a school near you.

Please reach out to [email protected] to schedule a school tour, meet teachers and students, and discover firsthand the difference of charter schools are making in your community.

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