Breaking Point: The Cost of Charter Schools for Public School Districts
Written by Gordon Lafer, Ph.D.
How are public school districts affected by the growth of charter schools? This first-of-its-kind analysis answers this question by looking in depth at three California school districts with significant charter school presence – Oakland, San Diego, and a smaller district in the South Bay. In all three cases, the research was done in close collaboration with school district officials, and the report’s financial conclusions were approved by district leaders. In all three cases, the report shows that the unchecked growth of charter schools enacts a dramatic cost on public school districts – largely at the expense of the neediest students. Public school districts are required by law to serve all students, but charter schools are not, with the result that they typically serve far fewer low-income students, refugee or homeless students, or those with severe special needs. As a result, public school districts are increasingly stranded – being home to the community’s neediest students but without the resources needed to adequately serve them. In Oakland, the public school district is losing an estimated $57 million per year due to unchecked charter school growth – or $1,500 for every child educated in traditional public schools; San Diego is losing $65 million per year. These losses are devastating to these school districts, and particularly to their neediest students. This report does not advocate either for or against charter schools as a whole, nor for any particular model of charter school; there are good and bad charter schools everywhere. Instead, it creates a methodology by which elected officials can measure the costs of charter school expansion and make intelligent choices about policy tradeoffs.