{"id":26959,"date":"2021-09-30T05:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T05:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=26959"},"modified":"2021-10-01T05:43:33","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T05:43:33","slug":"why-charter-schools-are-not-as-public-as-they-claim-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-charter-schools-are-not-as-public-as-they-claim-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"Why charter schools are not as \u2018public\u2019 as they claim to be"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kevin Welner<\/a>, University of Colorado Boulder<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proponents of charter schools insist that they are public schools \u201copen to all students<\/a>.\u201d But the truth is more nuanced. As an education policy researcher<\/a> \u2013 and as author of a new book about charter schools<\/a> I wrote with fellow researcher Wagma Mommandi<\/a> \u2013 I have discovered that charter schools are not as accessible to the public as they are often made out to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This finding is particularly relevant in light of the fact that charter school enrollment reportedly grew at a rapid rate<\/a> during the pandemic. Specifically, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, enrollment increased 7% from 2019-20 to 2020-21<\/a>. The organization says that is the biggest enrollment jump in a half-decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our book, we identify and describe 13 different approaches that charters use to bring certain types of students in and push other kinds of students out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are four examples from our book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Targeted marketing and advertising<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By using specific types of language in their promotional materials and by targeting those materials to specific audiences, charter schools often send a message that they are looking for a certain type of student. This is a way for charter schools to reach or appeal to a certain audience but not others, which in turn shapes who ends up applying to a given school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, Mueller Charter Leadership Academy in San Diego told prospective families that<\/a> \u201cAll eligible students are welcome to apply. However, it should be noted that because this is a highly advanced, demanding program, it may not be appropriate for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Targeted advertising can also carry a message. LISA Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2016 sent out targeted recruitment mailers<\/a> to area neighborhoods \u2013 skipping over the three zip codes for the heavily Black and Latino parts of town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re sending a message they don\u2019t want the kids on the east side of town,\u201d Max Brantley, editor of the Arkansas Times, remarked<\/a> after his newspaper exposed the practice. The school later apologized and explained<\/a> that its plan was to subsequently reach out to those populations through digital advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Conditional applications<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Charter schools sometimes require<\/a> multiple essays or a minimum GPA as a condition for initial or continuing enrollment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roseland Accelerated Middle School in Santa Rosa, California, for instance, required applicants to submit five short essays plus an autobiography using \u201cwell constructed and varied structure<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minimum GPA requirements can be imposed at the application stage or once admitted. At Lushor Charter School in New Orleans, parents and students are asked to sign a contract that requires students to maintain a 2.0 GPA<\/a> in core subject areas for continued enrollment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Parents required to \u2018volunteer\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some charter schools require parents to volunteer a certain amount of time at the school, or pay money in lieu of volunteering. Pembroke Pines Charter High School in Florida, for example, required each family to complete 30 such \u201cvolunteer hours<\/a>\u201d per year, but allowed 20 of those hours to be \u201cpurchased\u201d \u2013 US$100 total to buy out the first 10 hours and $200 more for the next 10 hours. These requirements place an additional burden, in terms of time and money, on families that are already struggling economically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
\u2018No excuses\u2019 charter schools are known for harsh discipline. Monkey Business Images\/Getty Images Plus<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

4. Aggressive use of discipline.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At so-called \u201cno excuses\u201d charters that \u201csweat the small stuff\u201d<\/a>, students have \u2013 at least historically \u2013 been subjected to harsh discipline<\/a> for minor infractions, such as chewing gum or failing to constantly keep their eyes on the teacher during class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of these schools repeatedly suspend students and call parents to leave work to pick up a suspended child. The most high-profile example is Success Academy charter school in Fort Greene, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, where school leaders created a \u201cGot to Go<\/a>\u201d list of 16 students who were then subjected to harassing discipline. In one case, a school official threatened to call 911 on a 6-year-old because the child was having a \u201cbad day.\u201d Nine of the 16 students did in fact withdraw from the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Functioning like private schools<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cumulatively, these and the other approaches we detail in our book \u2013 titled \u201cSchool\u2019s Choice\u201d<\/a> \u2013 make charter schools more like private schools than the public schools they claim to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These practices influence which students are admitted to charter schools and then stay in those schools. Charter school choice therefore affects schools\u2019 demographics<\/a>, including the degree to which they are segregated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They affect funding equity as well, since state school-finance formulas often don\u2019t adequately account for the actual costs of educating different students. In Pennsylvania, for example, charter schools are funded through a system that creates problematic incentives<\/a> related to access for students with special needs. As explained in a report by the state\u2019s bipartisan legislative Special Education Funding Commission<\/a>, the current funding system provides charter schools \u201cthe same funding for each student with a disability, regardless of the severity of that student\u2019s disability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis creates a strong incentive to overidentify students with less costly disabilities and to under-identify (or under-enroll) students with more severe (or more costly) disabilities,\u201d the report states. A speech impediment, for example, is an example of a mild disability<\/a>, versus a student with, say, a traumatic brain injury, which is a more severe disability. As the report explains, \u201cA student with a mild disability can be a financial boon to a charter school, given that the funding the charter receives will exceed the charter\u2019s cost to educate a child.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, Pennsylvania\u2019s funding system does not create these incentives for district-run public schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These practices also can play a decisive role for comparisons of academic outcomes between charters and traditional public schools run by a school district. Overall, research consistently shows<\/a> little if any difference in the average test-score outcomes for the two types of schools. But the comparisons may not be fair and accurate. If charter schools can improve their test scores by screening out students they don\u2019t think will do well, it can give them an unfair advantage in comparisons with public schools that accept all students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Policy incentives revisited<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So what can be done to make charter schools more accessible? One way is to change policy incentives such as the Pennsylvania funding system mentioned earlier. States can also change the way they reward schools for how well their students do on tests. Arizona, for instance, has policies that give extra funding<\/a> to charters and other schools with higher achieving students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the final two chapters of our book, \u201cSchool\u2019s Choice,\u201d<\/a> Mommandi and I point to a future with charter schools that don\u2019t screen or push out students who are lower achieving or more expensive to educate. First, we hold up examples of charter schools that have resisted the incentives to limit access by, for example, working to support their communities\u2019 most marginalized students. We then offer a design for a healthier charter school system that doesn\u2019t put these exemplary schools at a disadvantage when it comes to accountability and funding systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in a post-pandemic world, charter school enrollment may continue to grow. But until the public has more access, charters will not be truly public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversation\u2019s newsletter to understand the world.<\/em> Sign up today<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin Welner<\/a>, Professor, Education Policy & Law; Director, National Education Policy Center, University of Colorado Boulder<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin Welner, University of Colorado Boulder Proponents of charter schools insist that they are public schools \u201copen to all students.\u201d But the truth is more nuanced. As an education policy researcher \u2013 and as author of a new book about charter schools I wrote with fellow researcher Wagma Mommandi \u2013 I have discovered that charter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[1623,7689,7737,1737,4151,8670,1626,1622,2354,2467],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26959"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26959"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26962,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26959\/revisions\/26962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}