IALA » Center for Ed. Reform

Status of Choices in the U.S.

Wayne Jennings — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 21:30:22 +0000

More options are becoming available to parents and students. The current run down of choices:

Charter laws: 40 states have adopted the charter concept. These vary from strong laws with a high degree of program autonomy to weak laws where the charter school has almost no power to decide anything.

Open enrollment: 42 states give some form of a choice for which school or school district to attend. Some of the statutes provide for voluntary participation by districts and some give the decision totally to the parent.

Vouchers: 6 states have voucher laws usually for a city within the state to have a student

Charter Schools: State by State

Wayne Jennings — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 05:46:07 +0000

The Center for Education Reform examined charter school statutes for each state and ranked them as A, B, C, D, and F which I have coded as +++ etc. The ranking is primarily on how much autonomy schools have, parity of funding, number of schools allowed, etc. Each state is followed by the number of charter schools and the ranking. You will notice 10 states do not have charter statutes and 20 states have weak statutes. That leaves 21 states (the ones with a +++ or ++ sign) with strong or reasonably strong laws.

CHARTER SCHOOLS in U.S.2006-07
40 states + DC 3977 schools, about 1,150,000 students
A +++ B++ C D- F–
Alaska 26-
Arizona 466 +++
Arkansas 17 -
California 625 ++
Colorado 133 ++
Connicticut17

Deleware19 +++
District of Columbia 70 +++
Florida 391 ++
Georgia 55
Hawaii 27
Idaho 26
Illinois 53
Indiana 37++
Iowa 7–
Kansas 27 -
Louisiana 54
Maryland 25-
Massachusetts 59 +++
Michigan 241+++
Minnesota 137 +++
Mississippi1 –
Missouri 25 ++
Nevada 22
New Hampshire 9
New Jersey 55 ++
New Mexico 64 ++
New York 98 ++
North Carolina 100 ++
Ohio 293 ++
Oklahoma15
Oregon 67 ++
Pennsylvania 122 ++
Rhode Island 11 -
South Carolina 34
Tennessee 12
Texas 269 ++
Utah 54
Virginia 4 -
Wisconsin 207 ++
Wyoming 3

3,000 Charter Schools and State Ratings

Wayne Jennings — Wed, 25 Feb 2004 05:47:56 +0000

The public school charter movement has hit 2,996 schools this school year, the 12th year of the movement. The Center for Educational Reform provides a useful chart of each state, the number of charter schools and a rating of each state’s charter school laws as to their strength. For example, of the 41 states with charter statutes, six got an “A” grade and two an “F.” About 750,000 students attend charter schools this year.

Charter Schools Study

Wayne Jennings — Wed, 17 Dec 2003 00:51:00 +0000

A new report, Charter Schools Today: Changing the Face of American Education, by The Center for Education Reform describes the charter school movement in 24 states. The report says, “In 24 states that offer good data, charters have
made notable gains, particularly in serving a wide spectrum of students. In addition to serving ‘average’ populations, charters are serving exceptionally well children of color, children with special needs and huge numbers of poor children. More importantly, parents of these students report high satisfaction with the education their children are finally receiving.” Descriptions are of programs in these states: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, LA, MA, MI, MN, MO, NJ, NY, NC, PA, SC, TX, UT, WI.