Four charters schools in the Wilmington area can bring profits - WECT TV6 - WECT.com - Wilmington, NC news and weather -

Four charters schools in the Wilmington area can bring profits - WECT TV6 - WECT.com - Wilmington, NC news and weather -:

Charter schools can bring big profits

Posted: Feb 06, 2012 11:13 AM PSTUpdated: Feb 06, 2012 7:55 PM PST

By: Ann McAdams - email

Now that the cap has been lifted, dozens of applications to start new charter schools have been submitted.

While there is still a profit to be made, charter schools operate on a significantly smaller budget than their traditional public school counterparts, largely because they have to pay to rent school buildings and classroom space.

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - The state legislature lifted the cap on public charter schools last year, which used to limit the number of charter schools to 100.

Charter schools are essentially privately run schools - funded by public dollars. In our area there are four - Cape Fear Center for Inquiry and the Wilmington Preparatory Academy in Wilmington, Charter Day School in Leland, and Columbus Charter School in Whiteville.

Now that the cap has been lifted, dozens of applications to start new charter schools have been submitted. A regulatory board in Raleigh reviews the applications, and then decides which ones get to proceed for final approval by the state board of education.

As this is happening, we are learning some interesting things about how