What are Charter Schools?

   A lot of people hear about Charter Schools through the media, politicians, and in general conversation about education. However, to most people, it's not really clear what exactly charter schools are. Some people believe they're private schools much like colleges or believe they are only for the rich to send their kids off to. While there may be some truth in those statements, there is a lot more to Charter schools and that is what I hope to explain here.

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   Getting the big picture of something helps give context to the finer details and makeups of the schools themselves. This definition from the  Merriam Webster Dictionary should help give some context.

"a tax-supported school established by a charter between a granting body...and an outside group...which operates the school without most local and state educational regulations so as to achieve set goals"

Let us take this definition apart so each part is understandable. These charter schools are tax-support, meaning the government funds them, more often than not on a per-pupil basis or like a TPS(traditional public school). If you're interested in how your state's charter schools are funded check out this Link.
The school is also established by a charter(contract) between a granting body(more often than not a school board) and an outside group. To put it simply, charter schools are not run by the state/federal government, they are run by a 3rd party(parents, teachers, philanthropist, etc). However, they do fall under the jurisdiction of the state and are required to follow certain laws and requirement mandated for them to follow. A lot of times charter schools don't have to follow all the regulations a TPS has to follow. More information on each individual state here.
An issue that pops up in many debates on whether or not charter schools should be allowed is that the charters don't have to follow many laws a TPS does, how does the state make sure students are getting the education they need? Well, in the contract formulated between the granting body and the leaders of the school has to state the academic standards the school has to meet. If not met, the school can be closed down and its funding cut.
What makes charter schools different? Well, they are by nature supposed to available for anyone to attend much like TPS are. By law, these schools don't have entrance requirements and must take anyone that wishes to attend. However, some schools much like these ones in California have had illegal entrance exams or are bias against certain traits of applicants.
Now that there is some context to what charter schools are, what's so good or bad about them? Why have so many people in recent years(check out the graph below) flocked to charter schools?

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TPS vs Charter Schools

It is hard to compare each type on a larger scale so they will be split down into smaller subcategories.

TPS

-Urban and Rural/Suburban

Charter Schools

-Non-profit and For-profit

-Online and In a campus/building

-Urban and Rural/Suburban

Urban Schools

-Studies have found that charter schools perform better on average than their urban TPS counterparts

-The average is even higher for minority/low-income groups attending these charter schools.

Rural Schools

-On average TPS schools scored higher on average than Charter schools

Non-Profit Vs For-Profit Charter Schools

-For-profit schools on average do worse academically compared to TPS schools. Source

-Non-Profit Schools fell around the average of TPS and depending on location and type performed better than TPS.

Virtual Vs Building

-Virtual charter schools were found to perform much worse compared to Charter schools in buildings and TPS schools in general. Source

In General

  Charter schools can perform better academically but fall just about on par with TPS. However, when you look outside academics some more interesting statistics start to pop up. For example, even though charter schools scoreless on average on standardized tests, the average salary for those who attended charter schools is $2000+ higher than TPS.

Finally, the larger issue with charter schools is the amount of them that actually stay open. It has been found the 25% of charter schools did not open(10%) or closed due to mismanagement, bad facilities, bad academics, or financial issues(15%). The problem is that since charter schools are funded by the government, any schools that close is wasted money(so far $1B cumulatively)

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In summary, charter schools are much like public schools but adhere to different policies and can perform better or worse than public schools depending on location and type of school.

Written by Ryan Longo