The Charter School Strategy: Working as Planned
Enrollment is steadily increasing and charters have instigated new approaches to school governance.
But this pushback against these independently run public schools isn’t as dire as charter opponents want the public—especially charter supporters—to believe.
In fact, there’s another—more important—story to tell: the charter school strategy is working as planned.
Charter enrollment is steadily increasing. From 2007 to 2017 enrollment more than doubled, from 1.3 million to 3.2 million students.
In 2017, 21 districts had at least 30% of students enrolled in charters — up from 1% in 2006. Another 214 districts had at least 10%, up from below 20 districts in 2006.
The charter strategy is spreading. And working.
This view is consistent with chartering’s “great promise” described by Ted Kolderie, a charter thought leader, in a 1990 report by the center-left Progressive Policy Institute.
Chartering is primarily a governance innovation fostering system change in how school districts manage schools rather than an educational innovation focused on schools.
Kolderie contrasts the district sector, which is governed by school boards setting policy, managing districts and running schools, with the charter sector, which is governed by a decentralized contract model allowing organizations other than school boards to offer public education. These authorizers include state charter boards, non-education government offices and other nonprofits.
This approach broadens public education’s definition from districts creating and running schools to authorizers creating schools and contracting with operators to run independent, self-governing public schools.
Since chartering is a governance—or institutional—innovation, the key question for assessing success is whether the strategy instigates new approaches to K-12 governance.
It does.
Governance innovations include state Recovery School Districts that restart low-performing schools as charter or charter-like schools. New Orleans is its most prominent example, with results showing improved student outcomes.
Public school governance in the District of Columbia is another prominent example. The district and charter sectors exist separately.
The mayor oversees the district and appoints the chancellor, who supervises 116 district schools enrolling nearly 49,000 students—53% of public school students.
The charter authorizer is the D.C. Public Charter School Board. The mayor nominates its seven members, with consent by the D.C. Council. The charter board oversees 123 charter schools enrolling nearly 44,000 students—47% of public school students. DON'T CONTINUE READING BOYCOTT WALMART: The Charter School Strategy: Working as Planned