Charter Schools: A Solution No One Asked For (But So Many Families Need)
By Jennifer Wagner
If you work in the K-12 education space, you know by now that it’s open season on charter schools. This recent New York Times piece took a look at the phenomenon:
“Public charter schools — caught between growing Democratic disenchantment and a Trump administration shift toward private schools — are preparing for political battle, as the long-protected education sector finds itself on the verge of abandonment.”
With more than 3 million students in charter schools nationwide, the “abandonment” language might be a tad dramatic, but there’s no doubt charters are fielding more incoming fire than ever before — much of it from former fans who’ve turned into critics.
Some of those people are center-lefties like me, the folks who breathlessly signed up as founding members of their state Democrats for Education Reform chapters a decade ago but now have decided they want nothing to do with education reform. (Yes, I helped found a DFER chapter. No, I haven’t given up on reform.)
Politics is a beast, and the winds have definitely changed, but I believe the vitriol toward charters stems from something far easier to explain: They were a solution no one asked for, and they’re still finding their footing.
The private school choice movement and charters took off in earnest around the same time — roughly 30 years ago — but charters were brand-new, and they were set up to compete with the traditional public system. They are publicly funded. They were billed as a solution to “failing” schools. They often look and feel like traditional schools. And they tend to be more concentrated in urban areas, which makes it easier for rural and suburban policymakers to pick on them.
Private schools, on the other hand, have been around for a really long time, especially the religious ones. While they’ve always been an alternative to traditional public schools for those who could afford tuition or obtain a scholarship, they weren’t set up to compete with that system the way charters were.
Vouchers, tax-credit scholarships and education savings accounts have removed the financial barriers for many students — and spurred the growth of new schools in some areas — but there’s historically been a fundamental preference among parents for private schooling regardless of access to those programs.
Here’s another thing about charters: There’s still a lot of confusion about what they are and how they operate.
According to the 2019 Education Next poll out of Harvard University, 18 percent of respondents believe charter schools can hold religious services; only 22 percent correctly said they could not. Sixty percent of respondents said they didn’t know.
The numbers are even more staggering when folks were asked whether charters can charge tuition, with 29 percent responding affirmatively. (Charters are public schools, and they can’t charge tuition.)
Finally, and I’ve written about this before, reformers made promises back in the day that charters and vouchers would miraculously improve test scores and academic achievement and all sorts of other measurable outcomes for students.
The results have been positive, but they’re not so compelling that an outsider is going to take one look and declare non-traditional schooling types the end-all-be-all solution to low-performing public schools. (Also, we know parents rank test scores among their lowest priorities when choosing a school, so we’re really off-base if we’re trying to convince them to try a new school based solely on data.)
When you look at public opinion and the research, you begin to get a clearer picture of why the charter brand is struggling right now even though so many families are using charter schools.
Now, there are those in the school choice movement who are content — dare I say delighted? — to let that struggle continue in a bizarre one-upmanship contest where all the reforms are suited up for a zero-sum-game battle.
That seems silly and short-sighted, especially when it comes to the millions of families who have enrolled their students in charter schools. (Some of whom might not even realize it!)
I send my kids to private school, but there are charter, magnet and traditional public schools on the list as my oldest starts her high school selection process next year. What matters most is finding the best fit for her.
If we lose sight of that goal for all families, why did we do any of this in the first place? If private school choice advocates tear down charters because it’s convenient, we were never really in it for the kids, were we? And if charter supporters distance themselves from private schools or homeschooling because those things currently come with political baggage, what happens when the winds shift again?
I’ve written this before, and I’ll write it again: We reformers aren’t supposed to be reforming to serve our own egos. We’re here to provide options to kids, and those look different for every family. So let’s stop picking on each other — destroying trust and relationships in the process — and get back to expanding the portfolio of options available to every family in every community.
Jennifer Wagner is a mom, a recovering political hack and the Vice President of Communications for EdChoice, a national nonprofit that supports and promotes universal school choice.
