Tag: Education

Online Charter Schools

A girl sits at her desk hand writing while looking at a laptop.

Online charter schools have grown especially rapidly since the COVID-19 pandemic.  While online options are important for some students, online charter schools provide an inferior quality of education. Yet despite having much lower costs, such schools generally receive the same dollars per student in public funding – or nearly the same – as do traditional schools. All told, the report estimates that Californians waste $600 million per year by overpaying for the costs of online charter education….

The Cost of Charter Schools

Students walking into school.

This analysis reveals that charter school expansion caused major fiscal shortfalls in three California districts in 2016–17. When students transfer to charter schools, funding follows them, but districts retain fixed costs, forcing cuts to vital services. The California Charter School Act prevents school boards from considering financial impact when approving new charters. This report urges empowering officials to factor in fiscal and educational consequences before authorizing charter schools….

Spending Blind

Child reading a book

California’s charter school sector has grown over 600% in two decades, fueled by $2.5 billion in public funding for facilities. Despite ambitious goals, this report finds that funding decisions lack alignment with educational priorities. Schools are often built in areas that don’t need them and without regard for innovation or performance. The analysis urges policymakers to reconsider how facility funds are allocated to ensure they support high-quality, needed, and strategically placed educational options….

Do Poor Kids Deserve Lower-quality Education

Elementary school children raising their hands to answer a question.

Numerous states have debated or adopted laws that create special school districts, where low-performing public schools are taken over by the state and converted into privately-run charter schools. This report provides a comprehensive assessment of school takeover strategies that end up forcing a dumbed-down version of education on poor families instead of providing the funding that could guarantee them the same quality education that suburban parents insist on for their own children….

All Costs Considered

A fleet of school buses.

This study is an extension of two previous studies conducted by the Labor Education and Research Center that examined the transfer of school support services to private operation in the state of Oregon. The focus of this study is on student transportation services, which has perhaps become the most active arena for contracting out within school districts….