This coming fall marks 25 years since charter schools first began opening in North Carolina during the 1997-1998 school year.
While enrollment at traditional public schools fell during the pandemic, the percentage of North Carolina students attending charter schools grew.
Charter schools now serve 8.8% of all public school students and account for $9.1 million of the state education budget, said Ashley Baquero with the Office of Charter Schools.
This week, Baquero presented an annual report on charter schools to the North Carolina state board of education that will be submitted to the General Assembly. Here are five details from the report.1. The total number of charter schools has doubled since the General Assembly lifted the state's cap on charter schools in 2011.
Before the cap was lifted in state law, only 100 charter schools were allowed. There are now 203, with eight more slated to open this fall. The Office of Charter Schools at the Department of Public Instruction is requesting funding to hire more full-time staff to meet the demands of serving the schools and assisting new schools applying to open.
2. 21 charter schools have had their charters revoked by the state board of education.
The state board of education voted Thursday to close Torchlight Academy in Raleigh in June for issues with fiscal mismanagement and inability to serve the needs of special education students. It is the 21st charter school to have its charter revoked by the state board.
Including Torchlight Academy, a total of 84 charter schools have closed or had their charter terminated; most of those were voluntarily relinquished because of difficulty opening, said Ashley Baquero of the Office of Charter Schools.
3. Charter schools serve a smaller percentage of English language learners, students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students compared to traditional public schools.
4. Ethnic and racial demographics at charter schools are similar to the general public school population, except for Hispanic students.
5. A grant program is helping charter schools become more diverse.
With the help of a $36.6 million Public Charter Schools Program grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction is in its fourth year of implementing a grant program to help charter schools become more diverse.
The ACCESS grant program has distributed sub-grants to 61 charter schools in 28 counties to help them better serve economically disadvantaged students. The program requires recipients to use weighted lotteries to give an admissions advantage to students who are economically disadvantaged. As a result, more charter schools in North Carolina now use weighted lotteries.
