"All too often, supporters and opponents of charter schools claim that bad charter schools don't close," said Jeanne Allen, president of The Center for Education Reform, in a press release. "The truth is charter schools that don't measure up are closing at a rate of 15 percent. Regrettably, the same can't be said for traditional public schools."
In 2009, the Georgia Board of Education approved for Cartersville City Schools to be designated as a charter system -- something Assistant Superintendent Ken Clouse said differs from individual charter schools, which have to petition the local board of education and receive state approval to acquire charter status.
"We did it mainly because of the flexibility that is afforded to the systems not to have to operate under all the [Department of Education] regulations and state law and the flexibility with our funding," Clouse said.
He explained individual charter schools receive state funds that are funneled through the local school board. The schools operate outside of their local board of education yet remain under the umbrella of the state department of education.
"With a system charter, the schools have some autonomy and some authority, but we're really not operating any differently than if we weren't under charter status," Clouse said.
Several charter schools in Atlanta have closed over past years and the Fulton County school board refused last week to extend the charter status of top-performing Fulton Science Academy.
"The quality of charter schools in the U.S. is not as simple as saying 'there are too many bad charters out there,'" Allen said. "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 think the trend we're starting to see across the nation with charter schools closing is a lot of it's a funding issue, a lot of them don't have the funds to continue to operate.
A press release from The Center for Education Reform provided the following statistics:
* Of the approximately 6,700 charter schools that have ever opened across the United States, 1,036 have closed since 1992. There are 500 additional charter schools that have been consolidated back into the district or received a charter but were unable to open.
* 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).
* Most charter schools that close for financial or operational deficiencies do so within the first five years, or within their first charter contract. Failing to produce audits, or conduct basic, required oversight is a sure sign that the charter school leaders are not capable of leading a strong organization. Academic closures usually take longer because it takes the whole charter term to gather enough sound data and make proper comparisons.
* 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.