CURMUDGUCATION: NEPC: How Charter$ Ca$h In

CURMUDGUCATION: NEPC: How Charter$ Ca$h In:

NEPC: How Charter$ Ca$h In

Today the National Education Policy Center released a new report, "The Business of Charter Schooling: Understanding the Policies That Charter Operators Use for Financial Benefit." 

In other words, what policies are helping charter operators cash in, and how?

The report, by Bruce Baker (Rutgers University) and Gary Miron (Western Michigan University) is a valuable and useful read, filled with actual scholarly research (unlike, say, a typical blog post). The findings are not surprising, but they are stark and clear. This is a resource that will be invaluable in a thousand little charter skirmishes across the country. I'm going to just hit some highlights here, but I strongly recommend you read the whole thing.

The paper opens with a good pocket history of charters and the charter movement.This leads to an examination of the structural and governance differences of charters, and that leads to a discussion of how charters finance themselves. Baker and Miron that charters can only "find" money one of two ways-- either by revenue enhancement strategies, or by cutting costs.

The paper is rich with detail, data, and illustrative examples. The four basic concerns they express are:

1) Much of the money intended for educating children never makes it to the classroom. Instead, somebody is making money.

Charters can only make more money by increasing revenue or cutting costs. Revenue enhancement CURMUDGUCATION: NEPC: How Charter$ Ca$h In: