According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Washington, D.C., has the healthiest charter school movement in the country. In the group’s “Health of the Charter Public School Movement: A State-by-State Analysis” report, Washington gets high marks because half of its public schools are charter schools, those schools serve a high percentage of racial minorities and students learn more in charters compared to traditional public schools, among other factors.
The rankings measure “movement growth, innovation and quality.” Indiana is the highest-scoring state on the rankings, followed by Michigan, Massachusetts and Louisiana.
The health of the movement rankings provide an interesting contrast to the Alliance’s annual state charter law rankings. “The new health rankings provide a comprehensive picture of how charter laws are working in practice,” the Alliance says in a press release. “Most of the states with higher-ranked charter school laws are also highly ranked in the health-of-the-movement rankings. However, a couple of states with higher-ranked charter school laws did not rank very high in this latest report (and vice versa).”
The rankings analyze 18 states, although 42 states across the country have charter schools.
“As charter schools continue their reach across the country to respond to increased demand from families, we realize the mounting importance of having a stronger, improved framework in place to inform state and national leaders of what is working and where they can improve,” says Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “It is our goal that with this latest report, leaders will be able to see where they can strengthen their charter laws, learn from the best examples and take action to further advance the health of charter schools in their state and nationally.”
Charter schools are government-funded and do not charge tuition. Compared to traditional public schools, they have more independence in their operations and curricula, which is why so many families find charter schools desirable. They are open to all students, but they often don’t have enough space to meet demand. In that case, they use a random lottery system to determine admission.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
