Mapping the Terrain of Charter School Reform

Abstract

In this chapter I provide an overview of charter school reform, drawing on the data from the CCD and the SASS described in the Introduction. During the 2005–2006 academic year, 3690 charter schools were operating in 40 states and the District of Columbia, and enrolled just over 1 million students, or 2 percent of all public school students.¹ Not surprisingly, as the state with the most public school students, California had the highest share of these 1 million charter school students in 2005–2006 (19 percent), followed by Arizona, Michigan, and Florida (all approximately 9 percent). Charter school enrollment as a percentage of all public school enrollment also varies considerably across states. For example, the District of Columbia had the highest percentage of its public school students enrolled in charter schools in 2005–2006 (22 percent), followed by Arizona (8 percent) and Colorado (6 percent). With only three schools enrolling 210 students, which amounted to a fraction of the state’s 1.8 million public school students, Virginia had the lowest enrollment of students in charter schools.