A new report published by the RAND Corporation assessing the effects of charter schools in eight states confirmed what school choice advocates have said for years – Ohio’s charter schools do not have any significant effect on nearby traditional public schools. The RAND report confirmed that charter schools do not “skim the cream”, by taking the best and brightest students from public schools when it comes to recruiting. Actually, children enrolling in charter schools have similar academic achievement levels as those attending district schools.
The RAND report notes no major difference in math and reading achievement among Ohio students transferring between charter schools and traditional public schools. The report further examines just the nonprimary charter schools and comments that the differences in Ohio are “indistinguishable from those of TPSs (traditional public schools).”
However, the report goes on to assert a significant variance in the quality of Ohio’s charter schools. The authors of the report offer two theories on this variance; that Ohio has a diverse group of charter school authorizers and that Ohio’s charter schools receive significantly less funding than their district peers.
The report recommends making Ohio’s charter schools and their authorizers more accountable for the school results and closing those schools that don’t perform. Just last week, Terry Ryan from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation made similar recommendations to the members of the House Finance and Appropriations Primary and Secondary Education subcommittee.
While I have been a leading advocate for giving parents and children a choice in education during my time in the Legislature, I also led the effort in holding charter schools to higher standards than Ohio’s traditional public schools as well as requiring improved oversight and governance. While the majority of Ohio’s charter schools continue to be successful in educating Ohio’s children, there must be consequences for those schools that fail to give children an adequate opportunity to learn.
As a longtime supporter of school choice, I’m pleased that this report has helped to dismiss the myths that the emergence of charter schools has adversely affected the quality and financial condition of traditional public schools.
To view the full RAND report, please visit:
