Special Focus

Contracting for Success: Charter Schools Offer Choice

Volume 5 / Issue 4 / Summer 2005

Since the first one was approved in Minnesota 14 years ago, charter schools have become established in 37 states. As of 2003, almost 2,700 charter schools had opened, offering an alternative in education.

Although charter schools are found in many cities and towns, students and parents often do not fully understand them. Some mistakenly refer to charter schools as “voucher” or “private” schools. Others wrongly believe that the schools can be selective and therefore discriminatory in their enrollment, or that they are unaccountable to any governing body regarding curriculum or the reporting of student achievement. Many people would be surprised to learn that charter schools are actually public schools created to add choice.

Many people would be surprised to learn that charter schools are actually public schools created to add choice.

For parents who believe that the public schools where they live do not serve their children adequately, charter schools provide an alternative in states that permit them. In fact, a charter school often begins as the brainchild of a group of parents, teachers, or school administrators. This group, often dubbed the school design team, sets out to create a school that it feels will work for its members and their children. The team formulates a plan that clearly spells out the members’ framework and ideas and then determines whether these fit into the state’s regulations for charter schools.

As the school design team works through the charter approval procedures, it hires experts to review the charter, purchases curriculum and supplies, and leases a facility. These financial and logistical challenges are part of learning how to run this type of school. Federal, state, and local programs are available in eligible states to assist charter schools, and the Public Charter Schools Program has paid out about $1 billion in grants since 1994 to help with start-up costs. However, public funding usually begins only after the charter has been approved. State assistance varies: some states supply funds for facilities, some offer access to vacant buildings, and some provide low- or no-interest loans or grants.

Because charter schools often do not offer the same services that traditional public schools do, their operating costs tend to be lower. Bus transportation, for example, is usually not available to charter school students. This lack of transportation may limit enrollment to students who live nearby or have other transportation options.

There is no blueprint for charter schools, but they tend to be small (60 percent have fewer than 200 students) and newly created schools (rather than established public schools converting to charter status). Their classes are typically smaller than those of traditional public schools, making more individualized learning possible. Also, charter schools may operate as either nonprofit or for-profit institutions. Their teachers must be licensed (although in some states the certification requirements have been relaxed), and the schools participate in their states’ assessment system. The parents of students often contribute to the creation of curriculum and school policies.

The charter that establishes each school is a performance contract detailing the school’s mission, program, goals, enrollment limits, assessment methods, and criteria for success. Approval of the charter is contingent on a clearly described instructional program. Most charters are granted for three to five years, but they can be revoked if the state determines that student achievement has not been demonstrated or that the terms of the contract have not been met.

Charter schools make up just 1 percent of U.S. schools, so many see their effect on public education as negligible. But as their innovative methods of school management, student assessment, and instruction prove successful, traditional public schools are likely to sit up and take notice.
—Susan Ludwig, MA

Susan Ludwig is a freelance writer who holds a master’s degree in educational leadership, with an emphasis in exceptional student education, from Florida Atlantic University. She is managing a five-year grant at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for the National Science Foundation STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), designed to find ways to bring more students into these disciplines.