Too many stuck in charter deserts
In a country built on the freedom to choose — whether that’s Verizon or AT&T, Hulu or Netflix, iPhone or Android — it’s hard to understand why we don’t give poor families the opportunity to choose their schools, just as middle- and upperincome families can do via private schools or buying into the right neighborhood.
The advent of charter schools in the mid-1990s was supposed to change that by leveling the playing field for poor families. These are independently run schools of choice, meaning that students aren’t assigned to them because of where they live, but because families choose to enroll their child in them.
Many charter schools are specifically opened to serve disadvantaged youngsters in urban areas — and rigorous research has shown that many do a fine job on that count. Yet until recently, no one had determined whether we’ve been overlooking neighborhoods in America that are home to lots of poor children but lack charter schools.
Our organization’s new study, “Charter School Deserts: High-Poverty Neighborhoods with Limited Educational Options,” did just that. The lead author, assistant professor Andrew Saultz of Miami University, defined “charter school deserts” as areas of three or more contiguous census tracts with moderate or high poverty and no charter elementary schools. He found that, of the 42 states that allow charter schools, 39 have at least one desert each.
Of all the locales desperate for charter schools, portions of Oklahoma City are among the areas that need them most, as we were able to determine via an interactive website that accompanies our report. The city has just a handful of charter elementary schools, spread from north to south. Charter deserts cover much of it, particularly the innercity south area just above and below the Oklahoma River, where the poverty rate is as high as 68.1 percent. This area also is bursting with new growth so the problem is only likely to get worse.
The young people who inhabit these communities struggle academically; no doubt their parents want better choices. But rather than have access to oases of learning, these children are stuck in a charter school desert. And policies designed to curb charter growth, despite strong demand, are likely to blame.
The biggest barrier is massive funding inequality. State law doesn’t guarantee charters any local dollars, which contributes to them receiving 36 percent less in total per-pupil than their traditional public school counterparts. On top of this, charters have less money and access to adequate facilities. Such policies dissuade able operators from opening new schools in the city, and make it difficult for the ones that are already there to expand to serve the families that want to attend.
There is, nevertheless, hope. Oklahoma can enact legislation that makes charter funding more equitable. And city leaders can ensure that new schools have access to adequate facilities. Only then will the desperate demands of parents be met. Only then will deeply disadvantaged children finally be able to attend the high-quality schools they want and deserve.
Northern is senior vice president for research, and Petrilli is president, of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The institute’s interactive map is available at https://edexcellence.net/ charter-school-deserts.