Can Charter School Closures Be a Good Thing?
According to new research from the National Center for Charter School Accountability, one in four charter schools end up closing down by their fifth year in operation, and half don’t make it to year fifteen. The data sheds light on the relative instability of public charter schools as an educational option—a fact that parents should keep in mind when deciding to send their child to a charter school.
But what if this supposed weakness is actually a good thing?
While having a school unexpectedly close can be destabilizing for families, there is an unexpected upside to charter school closures. Unlike public schools, which stay open indefinitely even when they no longer serve families and students, poorly functioning charter schools will shut down.
Around 12,000 charter schools have opened between 1998 and 2022. With so many schools, it’s unsurprising that there’s considerable variation in the quality and consistency of these options. This means that when bad ideas come to charter schools, the market is able to do something about it. The same can’t be said for public schools.
In the paper, the most commonly cited reason for closure was declining enrollment, motivating almost half of total closures. This indicates that in many doomed schools, families were already deciding that the school in question wasn’t a good option for their children.
Some of this decline in enrolment coul
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