In the United States, charter schools provide alternatives to "regular" public schools. Unlike most public schools, charters don

In the United States, charter schools provide alternatives to "regular" public schools. Students may choose to enroll in a charter school instead of the school they were assigned to by their local school district. Unlike most public schools, charters don’t usually have an enrollment boundary and can recruit students from a larger geographic area. You can consider any charter school in your district (or even outside of it, depending on your state) for your child, regardless of where the school is located. Today, I’ll present a brief introduction to basic features, funding and monitoring practices of charter schools.
  First of all, charter schools can’t discriminate in their admissions process. But it is not always easy to enroll in a charter school. Popular charters are often oversubscribed and utilize a random method of choosing students, such as a lottery. When you apply to a charter school, ask about your chances of being admitted.
  Charter schools come in many different shapes. Some charters cater to specific populations, such as students with learning or behavior challenges, those who are academically oriented or students interested in the arts. Others offer a thematic or specialized curriculum. There are also charters that do net have any special focus, but simply provide an alternative to the regular public school.
  Charters are more likely to be found in urban areas, and they are three times as likely to be located in big cities. In general, charters serve more low-income and minority students, although individual school populations vary from one community to another and from one state to another.
  Run by large and small companies, parents, teachers, community groups and nonprofit organizations, charters can also change management and might be started by one group and operated by others over time. When researching a charter school, it’s important to know who started it, who currently runs it, its philosophy and financial status.
  Most charter schools are new and small. The charter school movement began in the 1990s and has grown rapidly. Many charter schools are ’less than five years old. Most are small in size, serving fewer students and offering smaller class sizes than regular public schools.
  There are now charter school laws in 41 states in the U. S. , plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and more than 1 million students are currently enrolled in more than 3,600 charter schools.
  Charter schools don’t necessarily produce better academic results than regular public schools.
  The research about charter school results is somewhat mixed. Some studies have shown that students make greater academic gains in charter schools; other studies have not. Charter school regulations vary from one state to another as do state-level achievement tests, which make it difficult to compare school results or draw conclusions on a national basis. Many people embrace the idea of charter schools because they give parents more choice, and are less concerned with whether this choice brings about any different results for students. Parents who choose charters are often drawn to their small size and personalized learning environments, regardless of what the numbers say about academic performance.
  As regards funding, charters receive it from the state, generally based on their enrollment. Similar to regular public schools, this funding is based on a formula for each child enrolled in the charter school. However, funding formulas vary from state to state and from school to school.
  In some states, such as Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota and New Jersey, charters do not receive exactly the same amount as other public schools because states and districts withhold administrative fees. In some states, like California, additional funds are made available to charters to cover facilities and start-up costs.
  Many charters have ambitious programs that are not fully funded by state/district formulas and engage in their own fundraising to obtain grants and additional donations. There is also a limited amount of federal funding to help start new charter schools.
  Funding for facilities can be a challenge for charter schools. In some cases, districts provide free space for charters and/or provide funding for charters to pay for facilities. But even with this support, charter schools often end up moving multiple times due to the difficulty of finding a permanent home. As you look at a charter school, be sure to ask about its facility status and whether it will need to move again in the future.
  Then, how are charter schools monitored? Authorizers are the entities that grant schools their charter, or agreement to operate, and monitor their performance. The authorizers vary from state to state and may include charter boards, school boards and universities. While each state’s charter law is a bit different as to what can cause a school to be shut down, the key reasons schools close are:
  They can’t recruit enough students.
  They can’t find a stable space to operate.
  They can’t manage their finances.
  While this sounds dramatic, in reality, authorizers rarely close down charters. Charters do close, mainly due to low enrollment, but not as often as you might think. When researching a charter school, find out who authorized it, and see if you can get a copy of the latest performance report generated by the authorizer. Some authorizers do very in-depth performance reviews of their schools, so these reports can give you important insights about the school’s long-term viability.
  OK, that’s all I want to say about charter schools. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me.