The ultimate accountability

The Center for Education Reform is out with a new study showing something that will probably surprise most people.  Nationally, since charters began in 1992, 15 percent of schools that have operated are no longer operating--they've closed.  The schools faced the ultimate accountability that comes with failure--they go away.  Parents withdraw students, authorizers revoke or fail to renew charters.  And the vast majority of those closures took place within just the first few years of a school's existence.

Some highlights:

There are five primary reasons for charter closures – financial (41.7 percent), mismanagement (24 percent), academic (18.6 percent), district obstacles (6.3 percent) and facilities (4.6 percent). 

The correlation between strong charter school laws, accountability and effective charter schools cannot be emphasized enough. Independent authorizers have full control over how they evaluate charter schools and have their own staff and funding streams. This enables them to create streamlined, effective tools to manage their portfolio of charter schools and close those that are not living up to their contract. 

"The quality of charter schools in the U.S. is not as simple as saying ‘there are too many bad charters out there,’” said Allen. “The real story about charter school closures and accountability is that strong state charter laws and strong authorizers give schools a better chance at success because they hold them accountable and can offer them tools to succeed."

I see this as fantastic news.  I'm (obviously) a charter supporter, but I know that not all charter schools meet their goals, improve student learning, or operate efficiently.  Those schools should either improve markedly or close.  No operating schools have yet closed in Utah, though our state has a presence in the "failed to open" category.

Others might see this as an example of wasted resources.  Why should taxpayers fund another "parallel system" of schools, 15 percent of which close.  The better question is, why should taxpayers continue to fund failing schools that don't improve?  We should shutter or replace more schools than we do, we just need to spread the closure wealth to the traditional district schools that also fail to meet their goals or fail to improve student learning.