The Charter School Movement in the United States: Financial and Achievement Evidence from Ohio

The charter school movement in the United States began in Minnesota in 1991 and spread rapidly in nearly every state within the United States in an attempt to provide competition for the traditional public schools. Since the passage of the first charter school laws, and the most recent legislative passage in Alabama, forty-two state legislatures plus the District of Columbia have approved charter school laws and have established charter schools; two states (Maine and Washington) have enabling legislation but have no charter schools (Center for Education Reform, 2015). In 1999–2000, there were 1,524 charter schools in 29 states and the District of Columbia enrolling 339,678 students; by 2011–2012 that number grew to 5,696 in 39 states plus the District of Columbia with a total enrollment of 2,057,599 students (NCES, 2014).

Because public elementary and secondary education is the responsibility of each state legislature, the purpose, scope, organization, and funding structure of charter schools vary dramatically from state-to-state. Further, legislative motivations for supporting charter schools vary greatly including raising the achievement of inner city students, increasing graduation rate of students in traditional public schools, offering choice to parents, promoting experimentation and innovation, along with, perhaps, improving efficiency of operating costs.

Because of the various structures and motivations, as well as the inconclusive evidence of the influence of funding on student achievement (e.g., Hanushek, 1997e.g., Hanushek, 1996, 1994, 1989; Hedges, Laine, & Greenwald, 1994; Wenglinsky, 1997; Wood 1998; Taylor, 2000; Wossman, 2003; Enns, 2004; Archibald, 2006; James et al., 2011) it is not clear that policymakers understand the effects of charter school structure and finance policies on student achievement. This paper examines the funding and the related achievement of students in the selected state of Ohio in which the presence of charter schools within urban areas is quite widespread.

Thus, this paper will offer an extensive examination of funding and its relationship to student achievement of charter schools compared to traditional public schools within large inner cities in one Midwest state. The paper provides evidence regarding the central thesis for charter schools as to the efficacy and the reality of the public policy in one selected state.

The charter school movement emerged as an attempt to provide competition to the traditional public school model and to provide choice particularly to inner city parents. Because the main thrust of the charter school movement within the United States is the public policy argument that charter schools will improve the achievement of students, particularly those within the inner cities, investigating the effectiveness of this policy argument with respect to public aid and student achievement is important.

Opponents of charter schools opine that taking away students weakens the financial support of the traditional public school system and this enrollment decline puts greater pressure on public schools due to the economies of scale. The overall growth of charter schools puts dollars used for funding traditional public schools at even greater risk than they currently are in most states. It is further argued that allowing more students to be educated outside of the traditional public school system creates a less homogenous society with greater cultural/political/social differences.

Purpose of study

Charter school public policy examinations are difficult given the varying nature of the legislative and financial structures that exist from state-to-state. The complex organizational variability is in serving over two million students across the nation. Generally, a great variation exists among the 42 states. Although the degree to which charter schools are released from state regulations varies greatly, generally, they are released from local/state rules and regulations but are not exempt from federal law. Each of the 42 state statutory structures offers a wide variation with regard to the number, locations, and the for-profit or nonprofit nature of the schools, as well as the mission and scope of the charter legislation. No two state legislative enactments are exact duplicates in terms of structure and accountability.

Other policy issues that differ from state-to-state include...