Are Charter Schools Losing Steam?

Veteran education reporter Alan Borsuk, who was a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for the better part of 40 years before leaving the newspaper a few years ago, now writes a weekly column on education. In his column, Borsuk reviews what is happening in educational policy circles in Wisconsin, with a focus on K-12 news from the state capitol and its impact on students across Wisconsin. While I have disagreed with Borsuk’s take on a few things over the years, he rarely gets it wrong and usually has an interesting take on the future of education.
Wisconsin is, for many reasons, if not the center of the educational policy universe, certainly close to it and the state should be paid attention to by educational watchers across the country. Wisconsin has had a long history of educational firsts, from the first kindergarten in the U.S. in the middle of the 19th century, to the first voucher school in the early 1990s. More recently, in 2011, the state was a battleground for teachers and the state new Republican governor which ended with the systematic dismantling of teachers’ unions in Wisconsin.
In his column posted in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Borsuk describes how the growth of charter schools in the state is slowing, despite the fact that they seem to be growing in other parts of the country. Among the reasons Borsuk gives for the lack of interest for charters in Wisconsin is the idea that parents simply like their public schools. This is a critically important point presented subtly by Borsuk, but one that every investor considering the K-12 market should consider.
In Wisconsin, a state with more K-12 options than any other state in the country, parents of all types, in every corner of the state, are choosing traditional public schools over the various publicly funded options available to them. Borsuk does not go into detail about why this is the case, but I have to think that the reason traditional public schools remain popular and in fact seem to be gaining market share in the state has to do with the fact that they are innovative, they are showing success, and they are marketing themselves.
These items may be worthy of another post or set of posts at another time. For now, take a look at Borsuk’s column from today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Joe Donovan is the principal of Forward Advisors, a national private equity consulting firm that specializes in the K-12 educational marketplace. Joe can be reached at joe.donovan@forward-advisors.com or at (800) 393–5283.
