When the Fences Come Down by Genevieve Siegel-Hawley

Author:Genevieve Siegel-Hawley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press

Choice Will Stimulate Competition (and Maybe Diversity): Charter Schools

Charlotte’s reimagining of school choice after it gained unitary status was in line with current streams of education reform that emphasize competition, high standards, and innovation. The idea that providing families with the ability to shop among schools would stimulate competition—and thereby improvement—in existing public schools was the foundation for the expansion of another iteration of choice: charter schools.72

Charters are public schools governed by a set of principles laid out in a stakeholder-formulated charter document. The first charter school opened its doors in Minnesota in 1991, just as the push for standards and accountability was accelerating in a number of states. Charters have been broadly supported by both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations and continue to grow rapidly.73 Between 1999 and 2011, the number of charter schools rose from 1,500 to 5,700 and the percentage of public school students enrolled in charters increased from 1.7 to 5.8 percent.74 Though still a relatively small proportion of the nation’s overall enrollment, the share of charter students has climbed dramatically in a number of large cities. In D.C., for instance, about half of all students enroll in charter schools.75

Charter schools, for the most part, are firmly rooted in the market theory of choice.76 By virtue of the governing charter, they are free from many of the regulations that traditionally apply to public schools. Supporters tout this flexibility as key to innovation in public education, suggesting that lessons from charters will eventually extend to other schools.77 This thinking dovetails neatly with notion that bureaucratic bloat and mismanagement, union restrictions, and the like are largely to blame for poor performance in U.S. schools—rather than persistent segregation, rising inequality, and a tattered social safety net.

Nevertheless, a small handful of charter schools and networks have begun to tout diversity as an important goal.78 Formed in the summer of 2014, a group called the National Coalition of Diverse Charter Schools has committed to sharing best practices for the creation of diverse charters. These include thoughtful site selection, careful recruitment, weighted lotteries that take into account student socioeconomic status or neighborhood context (e.g., zip code), and the establishment of curricula and/or school culture that embraces diversity.79 Note that such elements are very similar to the ones employed by choice policies rooted in the desegregation era. The coalition only contained fourteen charter schools and networks at the time of its inception—a proverbial drop in the bucket of around 6,000 charters nationwide. Yet the existence of the group is a new direction for the charter movement, and may suggest the beginning of an important shift in its goals and values.

In theory, when it comes to overcoming school district boundary lines, charter schools—like magnet schools—are easily able to do so. An important example of a regional charter school can be found in Rhode Island. Blackstone Valley Mayoral Prep offers a lottery for students from four different city and suburban school districts. As a report (expanded into a book called A Smarter Charter) from the

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