Charter Schools Don't Pick and Choose
by Darrel Deide, Chairman
The anti-charter school folks have always made the charge that the reason charter
school students typically outperform their traditional school counterparts is due to
the erroneous assumption that charter schools cherry-pick the best students. Our
own Idaho charter school commission chairman Bill Goesling stated in a recent
interview with the Idaho Statesman. “that charter schools get to pick and choose
their students.” These erroneous assumptions and mis-information by charter school
critics conclude that school choice is no better than our traditional monopoly.
However, a new study by Caroline Hoxby, a Stanford University economist reveals
data which provides great news for charter school supporters.
Her new study, “How New York City’s Charter Schools Affect Achievement,” shows
that charter students, typically from more disadvantaged families in places like
Harlem, perform almost as well as students in affluent suburbs like Scarsdale.
Because there are more applicants than spaces, New York admits charter students
with a lottery system. (Idaho uses the lottery as well) The study nullifies any selfselection
bias by comparing students who attend charters only with those who
applied for admission through the lottery, but did not get in. “Lottery-based studies,”
notes Ms. Hoxby, “are scientific and more reliable.”According to the study, the
average charter school student is scoring 5.8 points higher than his excluded by
lottery peers in math and 5.3 points higher in English. In grades four through eight,
the charter student jumps ahead by 5 more points each year in math and 3.6 points
each year in English.
The New York results are not unique. In a separate study, Ms. Hoxby found Chicago’s
charters performing even better than New York’s. Using the same methodology,
other researchers have seen similar results in Boston. In Idaho, regardless of what
test or tests you use charter school students routinely perform better than their
traditional school counterparts.
Another erroneous assumption is that charter schools take more taxpayer dollars.
Actually nationwide on average, charter school per-pupil spending is 61% that
of surrounding public schools. In Idaho charter schools cost tax payers less per
student as charter schools do not have any property tax levying authority in the form
of bond, plant facility, emergency, and supplemental property tax levies. Little wonder President Obama is pressuring states to relax or eliminate rules that limit the number of charter schools. It is too bad that our National and State Policy makers can’t or won’t see the evidence to other effective school choice reforms, such as vouchers and tax credits.
That lack of vision can only be explained by the power that the education
establishment, chiefly the teacher’s union, has over the policy makers. It is very clear
that charter schools do out perform traditional schools and that education choice is
at least part of the answer to improving our schools. For that answer we look to our
education leaders at all levels to eliminate those barriers to school choice. How much
longer will we have to wait?
