The popularity and steady growth of the charter school movement is documented in a new market share report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS). According to enrollment numbers from the 2010-11 school year, a record six school districts have at least 30 percent of their public school students enrolled in charter schools, and a record 18 school districts have more than 20 percent of their public school students enrolled in charter schools.
The desire for public school choice options is perhaps best represented in New Orleans. Charter schools in the New Orleans Public School System continue to have the highest percentage of student enrollment of any local area in the nation, with 70 percent of students in the district attending charter schools. New Orleans has become a hotbed for charter school growth during the city’s post-Hurricane Katrina recovery, with charter schools becoming the highest-performing sector of public schools in the city, according to the report.
Charter school market share in New Orleans grew from 61 percent in 2009-10 to retain the highest percentage. New Orleans charters posted 23 percent growth in enrollment last year, the sixth most of any district in the nation. Charter schools in the District of Columbia Public Schools system are a distant second in market share with 39 percent.
Of the top 10 charter school market share percentages in the nation, four are in Ohio school districts. Although charter school market share in Dayton Public Schools declined from 29 percent to 27 percent year over year, that percentage of enrollment was still eighth highest in the nation. Market share in Youngstown City Schools was 24 percent (ninth in the nation), and the percentage of enrollment in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and Toledo Public Schools tied with New York’s Albany City School District for 10th in the nation at 23 percent.
"This report demonstrates that in areas where families have a choice, a growing number of them are choosing public charter schools over the traditional public schools available to them," said Ursula Wright, NAPCS interim president and CEO. "Consequently, the public education landscape is shifting in many major cities."
The largest number of charter school students enrolled in any one district is in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), where 79,385 students attended charter schools during the 2010-11 school year. Charter school enrollment in LAUSD was up 19 percent from 66,809 in 2009-10. Detroit Public Schools was second, with 45,073 students enrolled in charter schools. Charter school market share in Detroit Public Schools (37 percent) is the third highest in the nation.
In all, the 10 school districts with the largest number of students attending charter schools represent 21.7 percent of all charter school students in the nation. The NAPCS estimates there were 1.8 million charter school students during the 2010-11 school year. Charter school enrollment in the top 10 districts grew 12 percent from the previous year.
"We estimate that there are now more than 2 million students in public charter schools across the country," Wright said. "And with hundreds of thousands more students across the country hoping for an additional seat in a charter school, we expect our share of the public school landscape to continue to rise in the coming years."
In addition to New Orleans, Washington, D.C., and Detroit, the other three school districts that topped 30 percent charter school enrollment during the 2010-11 school year were the Kansas City, Missouri School
