Why Are "Charter Schools" So Popular?

[rbroome]

@ralph124c

Here (Boston MA area) many of the local cities are launching charter schools. As I understand it, a charter school differs from a standard school in that:
-a regular school is controlled by a town/city school board (elected officials)
-a charter school is run according to a statement (charter) ,and is free of political control
I believe the CS arose because of the increasingly worse results of public schools (lower test scores, inability to teach basic skills). It was felt that removing political control would somehow make schools more effective.
AS for school boards-I think most of them are ineffective (they are launching pads for political careers).
Anyway, is there any evidence that CS are any better than the standard ones?

After reading the replies to the OP, I think one of the advantages of Charter schools is the variety. Different places are trying all sorts of different things. Some states allow cherry picking, some don’t. Some Charters take dropouts, some take gifted and talented. So all of the responses to the OP seem correct.

That said, I live in Louisiana, and here Charters and Vouchers have been taken to such an extreme that they truly are killing the public school systems. What happens when significant portions of the state do not have the ability to educate their young people will be a revelation that won’t be long in coming.

[MLS]

Yes. I have never before heard of a charter school like yours, Johhny Bravo. Is your school supported financially entirely by taxes?

[Johnny_Bravo]

Almost entirely. We’re operated by a not-for-profit organization that runs charter schools in four or five states. I believe there might be some donations and such at the corporate level, but down in the trenches where I work our funding is done with grants and regular school funding.

[guizot]

@MandaJo

. . . Some are absolutely fantastic, . . . and others are really pathetic, . . . . Anyone who generalizes about charter schools is talking about theory, not practice.

Yes.

To answer the OP: “Charter schools” are popular because the term still carries a kind of no-questions-asked aura of the magic wand–the wondrous cure that will lead to effortless universal education.

Truly educating everyone–no matter what their background–was never meant to be easy or cheap, though more and more people seem to expect it to be that way. Charter schools cannot magically evade the difficulties of doing this any more than other schools.

[brickbacon]

Charter schools, on average perform worse than the public schools that feed them.

Some charters do better; the majority do the same or worse. CREDO also moved beyond individual student performance to examine the overall performance of charter schools across multiple subject areas. They found that while some charter schools do better than the traditional public schools that fed them, the majority do the same or worse.** Almost one-fifth of charters (17 percent) performed significantly better (at the 95 percent confidence level) than the traditional public school. However, an even larger group of charters (37 percent) performed significantly worse in terms of reading and math. The remainder (46 percent) did not do significantly better or worse.**

And there is little reason to think those numbers will improve significantly given that charters typically pay teachers less, hire less experienced teachers, are profit-seeking operations, and cause significant negative externalities.

As for why people like them, I think it’s mostly because people incorrectly assume the market will always ensure better outcomes than government, and because the poor, often powerless people, in the places where charters usually exist, feel empowered by the freedom a charter gives a community.