Finding Recommendation The charter sector as a whole Improved financial oversight as outlined in underperforms academically relative to this policy report and improved financial similar demographic students in public transparency for the public, including district schools. Online charters show parents, would enable parents to make particularly poor academic performance. more informed choices regarding their education and make charters more child’s accountable to taxpayers. In addition, all online charters should be reviewed immediately to evaluate the quality of their academic offerings and student achievement to determine whether their charter should continue. The stated impetus behind expanded school choice in Arizona has been improving academic performance. It is based on the assumption that parents would choose the best school for their children (Fuller 1997, Hoxby 2003). Likewise the theory implies that public district schools are supposed to also improve since they must now compete for students in order to retain funding. Consequently one would expect that since charter enrollments have grown at a faster rate than public district schools that data for equivalent students would show charter students outperforming public district schools. The main purpose of the policy reports in this series is to discuss the financial and governance practices of charters as they currently exist. However, in the past, the defenders of the status quo have suggested that academics remain the focus of ASBCS' they educating looking at that This quote from efforts. “Are kids? We’re first”. the head of the ASBCS was given in 2012 in response to a regarding reporter’s query charter school financial issues (Ryman 2012). The question was sidestepped reporter’s by the answer.
Finding Recommendation The charter sector as a whole underperforms academically relative to similar demographic students in public district schools. Online charters show particularly poor academic performance. Improved financial oversight as outlined in this policy report and improved financial transparency for the public, including parents, would enable parents to make more informed choices regarding their child’s education and make charters more accountable to taxpayers. In addition, all online charters should be reviewed immediately to evaluate the quality of their academic offerings and student achievement to determine whether their charter should continue. The stated impetus behind expanded school choice in Arizona has been improving academic performance. It is based on the assumption that parents would choose the best school for their children (Fuller 1997, Hoxby 2003). Likewise the theory implies that public district schools are supposed to also improve since they must now compete for students in order to retain funding. Consequently one would expect that since charter enrollments have grown at a faster rate than public district schools that data for equivalent students would show charter students outperforming public district schools. The main purpose of the policy reports in this series is to discuss the financial and governance practices of charters as they currently exist. However, in the past, the defenders of the status quo have suggested that academics remain the focus of ASBCS' efforts. “Are they educating kids? We’re looking at that first”. This quote from the head of the ASBCS was given in 2012 in response to a reporter’s query regarding charter school financial issues (Ryman 2012). The reporter’s question was sidestepped by the answer.