What is a Charter School?

Charter schools are driving change across the nation. They are the most vibrant force in education today. Their legacy will consist not only of helping millions of families obtain a better education for their children, but also in renewing American public education itself. Charter schools are independent public schools, designed and operated by educators, parents, community leaders, educational entrepreneurs, and others. They are sponsored in California by school districts and county boards of education that monitor their quality and integrity but allow them to operate free from the traditional bureaucratic and regulatory red tape that hog-ties public schools. Freed from such micromanagement, charter schools design and deliver programs tailored to educational excellence and community needs. Because they are schools of choice (no one is forced to attend), they are held to the highest level of accountability, consumer demand.

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     Charter schools are independent public schools, designed and operated by educators, parents, community leaders, educational entrepreneurs, and others. 

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As a public school, a charter school is open to all who wish to attend it (without regard to race, religion, or academic ability) and paid for with tax dollars (no tuition charges). Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools are held accountable for achieving educational results. The charter establishing each such school is a performance contract detailing the school's program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success. The length of time for which charters are granted in California is five years. At the end of the initial term, the school can obtain a five-year renewal by petitioning the school board granting the charter.

Charter schools are accountable to their sponsor the local school district or county school board to produce positive academic results and adhere to the charter contract. The basic concept of charter schools is that they are free to exercise increased flexibility in return for this accountability. They are accountable for both academic results and fiscal practices to several groups: the sponsor that grants them, the parents who choose them, and the public that funds them.

Why Are Charter Schools So Popular?

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     Charter schools are judged on how well they meet the student achievement goals established by their charter, and how well they manage the fiscal and operational responsibilities entrusted to them. 

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Charter schools provide opportunities for better student-centered education. They provide the chance for communities to create the greatest range of educational choices for their children. Charter school operators have the opportunity and the incentive to create schools that provide new and better services to students. Charters, bound only by the high standards they have set for themselves, inspire the rest of the public school system to work harder and be more responsive to the needs of the children.

Charter schools operate from three basic principles:

1. Accountability.
   
   Charter schools are held accountable for how well they educate children in a safe and responsible environment, not for compliance with district and state regulations. They are judged on how well they meet the student achievement goals established by their charter, and how well they manage the fiscal and operational responsibilities entrusted to them. Charter schools must, and do, operate lawfully and responsibly, with the highest regard for equity and excellence. If they fail to deliver, they are closed down, unlike conventional public schools.
   
   
2. Innovations.
   
   Parents, teachers, community groups, organizations, and individuals interested in creating a better educational opportunity for children can each start charter schools. Local and state school boards, colleges and universities, and other community agencies interested in fostering innovation and excellence in schools sponsor them. Students choose to attend, and teachers choose to teach at charter schools.
   
   
3. Autonomy / Community-based management.
   
   Charter schools are freed from much of the traditional bureaucracy and regulations that divert some of a school's energy and resources toward compliance rather than excellence. Instead of jumping through procedural hoops and over paperwork hurdles, educators are freed to focus on setting and reaching high academic standards for their students.

The California Charter School Story

California's Charter School Act of 1992 established charter schools as an option for parents, students, teachers, and community members to design self-governing schools established to meet the needs of their community.

Under law, the public elementary and secondary schools operate under the governance of school districts and county offices of education. This law established a procedure for the creation of a limited number of charter schools, which would receive certain public funding but would not be subject to the laws generally governing school districts.

The charter school vision is eloquently described in the Charter School Legislation, Senate Bill 1448, sponsored by Senator Gary K. Hart. The intent of the California charter school law is primarily to improve student learning and to:

• Increase learning opportunities for all pupils, with special emphasis on expanded learning opportunities for pupils who are identified as academically low achieving.
• Encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods.
• Create new professional opportunities for teachers, including the opportunity to be responsible for the learning program at the school site.
• Provide parents and pupils with expanded choices in the types of educational opportunities that are available within the public school system.
• Hold the schools accountable for meeting measurable pupil outcomes, and provide those schools with a method to change from rule-based to performance-based accountability systems.
• Provide vigorous competition within the traditional public school system to stimulate continual improvements in all public schools.

A Brief History

The charter school movement has roots in a number of other reform ideas; from alternative schools, site-based management, magnet schools, public school choice, privatization, and community- parental empowerment. The term charter may have originated in the 1970s when New England educator Ray Budde suggested that small groups of teachers be given contracts or charters by their local school boards to explore new approaches. Albert Shanker, long-time president of the American Federation of Teachers, then publicized the idea, suggesting that local boards could charter an entire school with union and teacher approval. In the late 1980s, Philadelphia started a number of schools-within-schools and called them charters. Some of them were schools of choice.

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     Charter schools are one of the fastest growing innovations in education, enjoying broad bipartisan support from governors, state legislators, and past and present secretaries of education. 

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In 1991, Minnesota passed the first charter school law, with California following suit in 1992. By 1995, 19 additional states had signed laws allowing for the creation of charter schools, and by 2000 that number increased to 36 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Charter schools are one of the fastest growing innovations in education, enjoying broad bipartisan support from governors, state legislators, and past and present secretaries of education. President Clinton has also supported them, calling in his 1997 State of the Union Address for the creation of 3,000 charter schools by the year 2000 and delivering remarks for the 1999 Charter Schools National Conference.

The number of California's charter schools continues to grow. At the beginning of the 1999-2000 school year, 250 charter schools were open, in every area and region in the state. Charter schools are serving approximately 110,000 students in California. Nationally the U.S. Department of Education estimates that 1,735-1,790 charter schools are operating in 1999-2000.
Copyright © 2003 California Charter Schools Association

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