1. HOW MANY CHARTER SCHOOLS AND STUDENTS ARE THERE?
Public charter schools currently serve nearly 3.8 million students across 8,150 schools and campuses. During the 2022-23 school year, charter schools enrolled 7.6% of all public school students, up from 6.5% in 2018-19.
The charter sector has continued to grow steadily over the years with increases in both new schools and campuses as well as increases in enrollment (Table 1.1). As the charter sector has continued to grow, the overall growth rate has declined. This occurs because we see more charter schools in operation while having roughly the same number of new schools opening every year. Mathematically speaking, a consistent growth rate becomes more difficult when the number of schools increases. The 2020-21 school year was an important exception, where we saw a significant increase in enrollment driven in part by an increase in virtual school enrollment. Specifically, charter school enrollment saw a 7% increase from 2019-20 to 2020-21, the largest since the 2015-16 school year. Table 1.4 demonstrates this pandemic-related shift. The National Alliance's two enrollment reports, “Voting with Their Feet: A State-level Analysis of Public Charter School and District Public School Enrollment Trends” and "Changing Course: Public School Enrollment Shifts During the Pandemic," analyzed student enrollment trends during the pandemic in more details. Although the pandemic led to an unusual spike in virtual charter enrollment in 2020-21 and a slight drop in enrollment as they returned in 2021-22, we see the trend stabilizing in 2022-23 with a more expected increase in both schools and campuses as well as enrollment.
Closures
At the end of the 2021-22 school year, 159 schools had closed for a closure rate of 2%. Over the last decade, the average rate of charter school closures per year was 3.3%. During this period, only 4% of new schools closed in their first year of operation, typically because of facility issues or low enrollment. The National Alliance reviews charter school records and examines them to determine whether any changes were a result of changes to administrative reporting, school consolidation, or an actual school closure. In 2020-2021, we conducted an analysis of the reasons charter schools closed in 2018-19. With 69% of recent closures accounted for, the main reasons for school closings are low academic performance, low enrollment, or financial issues, which are usually closely related to enrollment.
FIGURE 1.1: NUMBER OF CHARTER STUDENTS AND SCHOOLS FROM 1992-93 THROUGH 2022-23
According to the 2022-23 school year data, 44 states, as well as the District of Columbia (DC), Puerto Rico (PR), and Guam (GU) have open charter schools, while 46 states (plus DC, PR, GU) have charter school laws (Kentucky and Montana have laws but no charter schools, yet). Between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years, the number of charter schools and campuses increased in 28 states and jurisdictions (60%), decreased in 8 (17%), and remained the same in 11 (23%).
The number of school openings grew slightly from 295 in 2021-22 to 327 in 2022-23. Notably, both Florida and Texas saw a large bump in openings, with 57 and 56 new charter schools or campus openings in 2022-23 respectively – 35 percent of all openings. West Virginia also opened four charter schools, marking the first year in their state's history families had that educational option.
FIGURE 1.2: TOTAL NUMBER OF CHARTER SCHOOLS AND CAMPUSES BY STATE 2020-21 TO 2021-22
A handful of states dominate the charter sector when it comes to student enrollment. Five of them—California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, and New York—account for more than half of all charter school enrollment nationwide. California has the largest charter school sector—almost 1 in 5 charter school students in the United States attend a charter school in California. Arizona, however, is the state with the largest share of charter school enrollment relative to its overall population. One in 5 public school students in Arizona attends a charter school.
FIGURE 1.3: STATES WITH THE LARGEST CHARTER SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
As charter school enrollment continues to grow, especially following the pandemic, many are curious about enrollment trends in brick-and-mortar charters compared to virtual charter schools. Examining the data reveals some interesting trends. First, the brick and mortar charter enrollment continues to rise from 3,199,512 in 2019-20 (prior to the pandemic) to 3,368,609 in 2022-23 (post pandemic). Second, virtual charter enrollment in the years prior to the pandemic, was growing in total numbers but remaining relatively constant as a share of total charter enrollment – hovering between 7.5% and 8% of total charter enrollment. In 2020-21, there was a surge in virtual enrollment, bringing virtual enrollment in that year to 10% of total charter enrollment. However, since that time, virtual enrollment has been declining (9.6% in 2021-22 and 9.0% in 2022-23).
