Charter school

A charter school is a U.S. and Canadian term for a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established public school system in which it is located. Charter schools are an example of alternative education.

By country

See also Education by country

Australia

All Australian private schools receive some federal government funding. They are technically all "charter" schools (though the term is not used in Australia).

Canada

The Canadian province of Alberta enacted legislation in 1994 enabling charter schools. The first charter schools under the new legislation were established in 1995: New Horizons Charter School, Suzuki Charter School, and the Centre for Academic and Personal Excellence.

Alberta charter schools have much in common with their U.S. counterparts. As of 2010 there were 22 charter schools in the province, operated by 13 charter school authorities, compared with over 50 school boards, with the largest one alone having over 200 schools. The idea of charter schools initially sparked great debate and is still controversial, but has had limited impact. As of 2010, Alberta remains the only Canadian province that has enabled charter schools.

Chile

Chile has a long history of private subsidized schooling, akin to charter schooling in the United States. Before the 1980s, most private subsidized schools were religious and owned by churches or other private parties, but they received support from the central government. In the 1980s, the dictatorial government of Augusto Pinochet promoted neoliberal reforms in the country. In 1981 a competitive voucher system in education was adopted. These vouchers could be used in public schools or private subsidized schools (which can be run for profit). After this reform, the share of private subsidized schools, many of them secular, grew from 18.5% of schools in 1980 to 32.7% of schools in 2001. As of 2012, nearly 60% of Chilean students study in charter schools.

England and Wales

Main articles: Academy (English school) and Free school (England)

The United Kingdom established grant-maintained schools in England and Wales in 1988. They allowed individual schools that were independent of the local school authority. When they were abolished in 1998, most turned into foundation schools, which are really under their local district authority but still have a high degree of autonomy.

Prior to the 2010 general election, there were about 200 academies (publicly funded schools with a significant degree of autonomy) in England. The Academies Act 2010 aims to vastly increase this number.

Germany

Due to Art. 7 of the Grundgesetz (German constitution), all private schools are eligible for state support to avoid segregation of pupils by their parents' income class. Therefore, all private schools in Germany are supported financially by government bodies, comparable to charter schools. The amount of control over school organization, curriculum etc. taken over by the state differs from state to state and from school to school. Average financial support given by government bodies was 85% of total costs in 2009. Academically, all private schools must lead their students to the ability to attain standardized, government-provided external tests such as the Abitur.

New Zealand

Main article: Charter schools in New Zealand

Charter schools in New Zealand, labelled as Partnership schools | kura hourua, were allowed for after an agreement between the National Party and the ACT Party following the 2011 general election. The controversial legislation passed with a five-vote majority. A small number of charter schools started in 2013 and 2014. All cater for students who have struggled in the normal state school system. Most of the students have issues with drugs, alcohol, poor attendance and achievement. Most of the students are Maori or Pacific Island. One of the schools is set up as a military academy. One of the schools ran into major difficulties within weeks of starting. It is now being run by an executive manager from Child, Youth and Family, a government social welfare organization, together with a commissioner appointed by the Ministry of Education. 36 organizations have applied to start charter schools.

Norway

See also: Education in Norway

As in Sweden, the publicly funded but privately run charter schools in Norway are named friskoler and was formally instituted in 2003, but dismissed in 2007. Private schools have since medieval times been a part of the education system, and is today consisting of 63 Montessori and 32 Steiner (Waldorf) charter schools, some religious schools and 11 non-governmental funded schools like the Oslo International School, The German School Max Tau and the French School Lycée Français, a total of 195 schools.

All charter schools can have a list of admission priorities, but only the non-governmental funded schools are allowed to select their students and to make a profit. The charter schools can not have entrance exams, and supplemental fees are very restricted. In 2013, a total of 19.105 children were enrolled in privately run schools

Sweden

See also: Education in Sweden

The Swedish system of friskolor ("charter schools") was instituted in 1992. These are publicly funded by school vouchers and can be run by not-for-profits as well as for-profit companies. The schools are restricted: for example, they are prohibited from supplementing the public funds with tuition or other fees; pupils must be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis; and entrance exams are not permitted. There are about 900 charter schools throughout the country.

United States

Main article: Charter schools in the United States

In 2003 Granada Hills Charter High School became the largest charter school in the United States

SER-Niños Charter School, a charter school in the Gulfton area of Houston, Texas

Minnesota wrote the first charter school law in the United States in 1991. As of 2015, Minnesota had 165 registered charter schools, with over 41,000 students attending. The first of these to be approved, Bluffview Montessori School in Winona, Minnesota, opened in 1992. The first charter to operate was City Academy in St. Paul. Some specialized Minnesota charter-schools include the Metro Deaf School (1993), Community of Peace Academy (1995), and the Mainstreet School of Performing Arts (2004).

Since 1991, 43 states and the District of Columbia have approved the formation of charter schools. As of the 2014-2015 school year, 6,700 public charter schools served about 2.9 million students throughout the country.

As of December 2011 approximately 5,600 public charter schools enrolled an estimated total of more than 2 million students nationwide. The numbers equate to a 13% growth in students in just one year, while more than 400,000 students remain on waitlists to attend the public school of their choice. Over 500 new public charter schools opened their doors in the 2011–12 school year, an estimated increase of 200,000 students. This year marks the largest single-year increase ever recorded in terms of the number of additional students attending charters.

Arguably the most radical experimentation with charter schools in the United States occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (2005). As of 2009 the New Orleans Public Schools system was engaged in reforms aimed at decentralizing power away from the pre-Katrina school-board central bureaucracy to individual school principals and to charter-school boards, monitoring charter-school performance by granting renewable, five-year operating contracts permitting the closure of those not succeeding, and vesting choice in parents of public-school students, allowing them to enroll their children in almost any school in the district. New Orleans is one of two cities in the United States of America where the majority of public-school students attend charter schools. 78% of all New Orleans school-children studied in charter schools during the 2011–12 school year. As of May 2014, all but five of New Orleans' schools were charter schools rather than traditional public schools.

Unlike their counterparts, laws governing charter schools vary greatly from state to state. Note in this regard the three states with the highest number of students enrolled in charter schools: California, Arizona, and Michigan. These differences largely relate to what types of public agencies are permitted to authorize the creation of charter schools, whether or not and through what processes private schools can convert to charter schools, and whether or not charter-school teachers need to be certified and what that certification consists of.

In California, local school districts are the most frequent granters of school charters. If a local school district denies a charter application, or if the proposed charter school provides services not provided by the local school districts, a county board consisting of superintendents from state schools or the state board of education can grant a charter. The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools grants charters in Arizona. Local school districts and the state board of education can also grant charters. In contrast, the creation of charter schools in Michigan (known there as "Public School Academies") can be authorized only by local school boards or by the governing school boards of state colleges and universities.

Different states with charter-school legislation have adopted widely different positions in regard to the conversion of private schools to charter schools. California, for example, does not allow the conversion of pre-existing private schools into charter schools. Both Arizona and Michigan allow such conversions, but with different requirements. A private school wishing to convert to a charter school in Michigan, for example, must show that at least 25% of its student population is made up of new students. Legislation in Arizona stipulates that private schools that wish to become charter schools within that state must have admission policies that are fair and non-discriminatory. Also, while Michigan and California require teachers at charter schools to hold state certification, those in Arizona do not.

Charter schools were targeted as a major component of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. Specifically, the act specifies that students attending schools labeled as under-performing by state standards now have the option to transfer to a different school in the district, whether it is a state, private, or charter school. The act also suggested that if a failing school cannot show adequate yearly progress, it will be designated a charter school.

As of 2005 there were almost 100 charter schools in North Carolina, the limit passed by legislation in 1996. The 1996 legislation dictates that there will be no more than five charter schools operating within one school district at any given time. It was passed in order to offer parents options in regard to their children and the school they attend, with most of the cost being covered by tax revenue. After the first several years of permitting charter schools in North Carolina, the authority to grant charters shifted from local boards of education to the State Board of Education. This can also be compared with several other states that have various powers that accept charter school applications.

There is strong demand for charter schools from the private sector. Typically, charter schools operate as nonprofits. However, the buildings in which they operate are generally owned by private landlords. Accordingly, this asset class is generating interest from real-estate investors who are looking towards the development of new schools. State and local governments have also shown willingness to help with financing. Charter schools have grown in popularity over the recent past. In 2014-2015, 500 new public charter schools opened in the country. As of 2015, 6,700 charter schools enroll approximately 2.9 million students in the United States.

Cyber schools

Cyber schools aim to better prepare students for work in a technical world. Charter cyber schools operate like typical charter schools in that they are independently organized schools, but allow for much more flexibility compared with traditional schools. Between 1999 and 2003, about sixty cyber charter schools opened, with over 16,000 students. These cyber charter schools operated in fifteen states and account for approximately 2% of all charter school students. They allow for teaching students over the Internet, meeting with teachers only for certain activities. They also allow students to attend the cyber charter school without being located in that local school district. Cyber charter schools face unique challenges, in part related to legislation drafted for regular charter schools. As a result, four states have adopted specific legislation tailored to cyber charter schools.

One example of a state's cyber schools seeing an increase in implementation is Arizona, which has about 3,500 students in cyber schools, about half of them cyber charter schools and the other half governed by normal public school districts. The cyber schools teach students from kindergarten to twelfth grade, and the setting varies from being entirely online in one's home to spending all of the class time in a formal school building while learning over the Internet.

In November 2015 researchers at the University of Washington, Stanford University and the Mathematica Policy Research group published the first major study into online charter schools in the United States, the "National Study of Online Charter Schools". It found "significantly weaker academic performance" in mathematics and reading in such schools when compared to conventional ones. The study resulted from research carried out in 17 US states which had online charter schools. It concluded that keeping online pupils focused on their work was the biggest problem faced by online charter schools, and that in mathematics the difference in attainment between online pupils and their conventionally-educated peers equated to the cyber pupils missing a whole academic year in school.

See also

• Bradley Foundation
• Charter School Growth Fund
• DreamBox (company)
• Broad Foundation
• Koch Family Foundations
• Walton Foundation