Charter Schools - Part 1: What are they?

One of the questions I get most from friends who are not educators is, "what is a charter school?" While charter schools are a contentious issue within the education community, the fact is that few people really understand what they are and how they function. Hopefully, I can present a crash course that is balanced and accurate.

For most of the modern era, students have had two options. They either attend their local public school, or they go to a private school such as Catholic school or some other private institution. Local public schools are operated and overseen by the local community. For example, the Plymouth Public Schools in Plymouth, MA, operate as a town department with an elected school committee that oversees policy and and recommends a budget to the town. For some, their children attend a regional school district. This has a similar structure, but since there are multiple towns involved, the nature of the school committee and how the funding is apportioned varies. Local public schools are funded with a combination of state education money and local contributions.

Since a major piece of legislation was passed called the Education Reform Act of 1993, Massachusetts has offered another kind of public school: charter schools. Charter schools are similar to traditional public schools in that they are funded with taxpayer money. However, most charter schools (called Commonwealth Schools in MA) operate outside of the jurisdiction of traditional public school systems. For example, if a charter school opens in your hometown, it is probably operating outside of the control of your local school committee. It has a separate board of trustees, and a separate administration. There are some charters that operate within a school system, called Horace Mann charters, but there are more of the other kind here and in most other states.

But, why?

The history of charter schools begins in a state most would not name when asked to guess: Minnesota. Minnesota opened the first charter school in 1993, during a time when many states were beginning to explore the idea. Massachusetts passed the legislation in 1993 that paved the way for charters, as did states like California in 1992. Many would say that charters were originally designed as an experiment. Could small, locally managed public schools, become centers for trying new education methods that, if successful, could be brought to scale in entire districts? That was what many early proponents of charters wanted to find out.

Ways in which charter schools could operate differently than a traditional school include the length of the school day, what courses are offered, different instructional methods, etc. One could call them "laboratories of best practice." A charter school can be proposed by a wide variety of stakeholders: teachers, community members, etc. Charters must show that they offer an educational program that is substantially different than the one being offered in a traditional public school. Some charters offer an emphasis on a particular subject, like the performing arts. Conservatory Lab Charter School in Boston incorporates learning stringed instruments into the regular education curriculum. Sturgis Charter School in Hyannis operates on the International Baccalaureate program that is used in most European countries.

The oldest charter schools in Massachusetts go all the way back to education reform in 1993. Some schools, like Boston Collegiate Charter and Academy of the Pacific Rim, have been around for most of that time. Many schools, however, are much newer. The reason is that there was a renewed push for charter schools in the early 2000s as a possible solution to failing schools under the landmark No Child Left Behind legislation passed by Congress in 2001. Massachusetts currently has a limit on the amount of charter schools allowed to operate, but pro-charter organizations are trying to lobby the legislature to raise or remove that cap.

That's the basics of what they are and how they started. As you can imagine, this quickly turns into a debate about competition for resources, equity, union busting, and more! I'll cover the politics of charter schools in my next post.