Parents flocked to charter schools, public schools hemorrhage students over past 4 years: report

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A new report shows that charter schools have made significant gains over the past four years.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) last month revealed new data analysis over the past four years titled "Believing in Public Education: A Demographic and State-level Analysis of Public Charter School and District Public School Enrollment Trends."

The report showed an uptick in charter school enrollment from 2019 to 2023. More recently, charter school enrollment grew 2% while district enrollment plateaued. More precisely, charter school enrollment increased by 72,241 students while public school enrollment increased by only 7,458 students nationwide.

To explain further, the report said charter schools enrolled nearly 10 times the number of new students compared to district schools in the last school year. 

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released a report on December 12th showing that that charter schools have made significant gains over the past four years. (Francesco Fotia/AGF/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

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"This represents meaningful growth for charter schools, especially considering that these unique public schools only serve 7.5% of the nation’s public school students," the NAPCS said in a news release about the report.

Furthermore, NAPCS reported more data that level charter schools with traditional public schools.

"Over the last four school years (2019-20 to 2022-23), charter schools gained more than 300,000 new students, an increase of 9%. Meanwhile, district public schools lost 1.5 million students at the beginning of the pandemic and enrollment has not rebounded over the past three years, creating a net loss of 3.5%," the report states.

Charter schools gained students between the 2019-20 and 2022-23 school years in nearly every state, particularly among Black and Hispanic students as they account for half of charter school enrollment growth and are the fastest-growing demographic since 2019.

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The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools report shows an uptick in charter school enrollment from 2019 to 2023. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Nina Rees, President and CEO of the NAPCS, added that "public charter schools remain a popular choice for families across the nation."

"Free, public, and open to all, charter schools deliver a high-quality choice in education and parents are demanding greater access to these unique public schools year after year," Rees said.

When charter schools are neighbors to public schools, they compete for per-pupil funding as parents are allowed to opt out of sending their child to the neighborhood public school.

Charter public schools siphoned off funding from traditional public schools, decreasing the resources available at traditional public schools. Concerns entail that the money being taken away from traditional public schools can be used to boost teachers' salaries, invest in public school facilities, and recruit more teachers. 

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was seen in a viral video saying that school choice "undermines democracy." She made the remarks in October at a conference. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)

The consequences prompt teacher union officials and other interest groups to push back against charter schools and sometimes make an effort to restrict their expansion.

The NAPCS report came after universal school choice made significant gains in 2023 when a wave of red states passed legislation.

More states look to join the fold in 2024.

American Federation For Children Senior Fellow Corey DeAngelis reacted to the report saying that "families have woken up and now they're voting with their feet."

"In places like New York City, the Democrat government favors unions even more by capping enrollment at their charter school competition," DeAngelis said.

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He continued, "That results in waiting lists of tens of thousands of students every year. Imagine how much the trends would differ if families had full choice. The latest enrollment numbers represent a severe lower bound of the true wishes of parents. This is why the unions are so terrified of competition."