Charter School Impact on Public & Private School Enrollments

[Anonymous]

www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/impact-charter-schools-public-private-school-enrollments?utm_source=Government+Affairs+%28Capitol+Hill+emails%29&utm_campaign=0b42d1701e-New_Cato_Paper&utm_medium=email&mc_cid=0b42d1701e&mc_eid=edfe964fc2

www.cato.org/pubs/pas/Charter-School-Paradox.pdf

One section that I found particularly interesting - though charters spend less per student than most public and privates, they can paradoxically cost taxpayers more money by moving kids from private schools into public schools:

“Buddin found that charters serving primary students in highly urban districts take almost one third of their students from private schools, on average. Urban charters draw nearly one quarter of their middle school students and over 15 percent of their high school students from the private sector. Even in non-urban districts, charters pull between 7 and 11 percent of all their students from private schools.”

[Anonymous]

There are definitely families at our charter who say they would have done private if they hadn't won the charter school lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are definitely families at our charter who say they would have done private if they hadn't won the charter school lottery.

Even at the low end of the income spectrum, parents now register their children for charter schools rather than the local Catholic parish school.

[Anonymous]

I read an article in EdWeek that said Catholic schools in urban areas are really hurting because of charters. And here in DC we know many parochial schools converted to chartre a few years back.

[Anonymous]

Can a school stay catholic and becomes a charter? Or do they skip religious education?

[Anonymous]

Seems to me there's a serious battle afoot. The privates, parochials and public schools all have their crosshairs on charters, because they see their students (and therefore, their funding) going over to charters in ever increasing numbers. That would certainly explain the vitriol and FUD campaign of vague, nonspecific and irrelevant accusations about Latin, BASIS and the others.

[Anonymous]

this could put the voucher program out of business

[Anonymous]

In short, it's competition. Privates, charters, and publics all need to up their game if they hope to stay afloat.

Trying to drag other schools like Latin or Basis down with negativity isn't the way to do it, the way to do it is to improve those other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In short, it's competition. Privates, charters, and publics all need to up their game if they hope to stay afloat.

Trying to drag other schools like Latin or Basis down with negativity isn't the way to do it, the way to do it is to improve those other schools.

Amen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In short, it's competition. Privates, charters, and publics all need to up their game if they hope to stay afloat.

Trying to drag other schools like Latin or Basis down with negativity isn't the way to do it, the way to do it is to improve those other schools.

when did "up" become a verb?

[Anonymous]

Not sure why the word "paradox" appears in the title.

It seemed obvious to me that increasing the caliber of public education would attract private schools families back to public schools.

It seemed obvious to me when last year DC charter enrollment increased by 8% but DCPS enrollment barely budged.

In fact, wasn't attracting private school families back part of the plan for improving public schools? If 70% of DC kids are low SES, but no school with more that 30% low SES performs well, don't we have to attract a large number of middle and high SES families back to drive the percentage from 70% down to 30% on average?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short, it's competition. Privates, charters, and publics all need to up their game if they hope to stay afloat.

Trying to drag other schools like Latin or Basis down with negativity isn't the way to do it, the way to do it is to improve those other schools.

when did "up" become a verb?

I think it's a back-formation from "up the ante".

[Anonymous]

a.) "up your game" is an idiom in common use, meaning "improve your performance". Get out more.

b.) To understand the paradox, you have to consider the source. Cato Institute is all about free markets and limited government. It's a paradox in that charters initially lessen taxpayer costs on one level by being a more cost-effective alternative on a cost-per-student basis than public schools, but it ends up increasing taxpayer costs because they are so effective that they draw away students from privates, which, while there's still a lower cost per student to the taxpayer, it potentially increases the number of students overall.

I think it is Cato wrestling with the fact that it's market competition in action (something they support), but is still dependent on taxpayer dollars (something they do not support).

[Anonymous]

If not for charter, we would move, not go private.

What the urban charters actually do is to make urban living possible for families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:a.) "up your game" is an idiom in common use, meaning "improve your performance". Get out more.

b.) To understand the paradox, you have to consider the source. Cato Institute is all about free markets and limited government. It's a paradox in that charters initially lessen taxpayer costs on one level by being a more cost-effective alternative on a cost-per-student basis than public schools, but it ends up increasing taxpayer costs because they are so effective that they draw away students from privates, which, while there's still a lower cost per student to the taxpayer, it potentially increases the number of students overall.

I think it is Cato wrestling with the fact that it's market competition in action (something they support), but is still dependent on taxpayer dollars (something they do not support).

Ha ha! Good explanation, and I love the image of Cato with its knickers all in a twist about this.