FAQs

What are Charter Schools?

Charter schools are new, innovative public schools that are accountable for student results. They are designed to deliver programs tailored to educational excellence and the needs of the communities they serve. Charter schools are one of the fastest and most successful growing reforms in the country. Based on the belief that America’s public schools should meet standards of excellence and be held accountable, parents are lining up to choose these innovative public schools that are able to meet the individual needs of their children.


How Do Charter Schools Differ From Traditional District Public Schools?

Charter schools operate on three basic principles:

Choice
Charter schools give families an opportunity to pick the school most suitable for their child’s educational well-being. Teachers choose to create and work at schools where they directly shape the best working and learning environment for their students and themselves. Likewise, charter sponsors choose to authorize schools that are likely to best serve the needs of the students in a particular community.

Accountability
Charter schools are judged on how well they meet the student achievement goals established by their charter contract. Charter schools must also show that they can perform according to rigorous fiscal and managerial standards. If a charter school cannot perform up to the established standards, it will be closed.

Freedom
While charter schools must adhere to the same major laws and regulations as all other public schools, they are freed from the red tape that often diverts a school’s energy and resources away from educational excellence. Instead of constantly jumping through procedural hoops, charter school leaders can focus on setting and reaching high academic standards for their students.


Why Are Charter Schools So Popular?

Educational quality
The primary reason for charter schools is to make sure every child has access to a quality education. With the freedom and choice to do so, charters set higher standards and must meet them to stay in business. Most other public schools stay in business no matter how poorly they perform. Not so with charter schools. They are your ticket to higher-quality schools.

Focus on the kids
Perhaps most important, a charter school is set up around the needs of children, not around the needs of adults. The focus should always be on the kids, and programs should be designed to help children succeed, no matter what it takes.

Safer, stronger communities
Charter schools typically engage local businesses and other organizations to help provide resources and services to the school and its families. Charter schools have a proven effect on the strength and safety of a community.


How Are Charter Schools Funded?

Like district public schools, they are funded according to enrollment (also called average daily attendance, or ADA), and receive funding from the state according to the number of students attending.


Do Charter Schools Take Money from Public Schools?

Charter schools are public schools. When a child leaves for a charter school the money follows that child. This benefits the public school system by instilling a sense of accountability into the system regarding its services to the student and parents and its fiscal obligations.


Do Charter Schools Work?

Yes. In addition to the positive pressure they put on the public school system as a whole, charter schools satisfy and serve their primary constituents (teachers, parents, and students) by providing exciting and viable new education in an inclusive, individual manner.

Harvard University Professor and Economist Caroline Hoxby recently released a study called "A Straightforward Comparison of Charter Schools and Regular Public Schools in the United States." The study compared 4th grade students in charter schools with 4th graders in the public schools that the charter students would go to absent the charter option and made several important conclusions:

> Compared to students in the nearest regular public school, charter students are 4 percent more likely to be proficient in reading and 2 percent more likely to be proficient in math, on their state’s exam.

> Compared to students in the nearest regular public school with a similar racial composition, charter students are 5 percent more likely to be proficient in reading and 3 percent more likely to be proficient in math.



(adapted from www.edreform.com)