Education in America can trace its roots all the way back to the Puritans of the 1600s. The first public school was established in Boston, Massachusetts and allowed only boys. Eventually, the school system grew and became the recognized K-12 system that is familiar to Americans today. In the 1960s, the first magnet school opened with the aim to increase diversity in the nation’s public school system. Magnet schools differ from other district public schools in two major ways. They are schools you must choose, and they have admission requirements that can deny a student entry. Students and parents seek out magnet schools because they offer specific curriculum focal points that are not offered or heavily focused in a district school. Aside from private schools, these two types of schools anchored primary school education for children until the early 90s. In 1992, the first charter school opened in St. Paul, Minnesota and six years later the first charter school opened in Nevada.
What Is a Charter School?
Charter schools operate in many of the same ways as a public school, in that they are not allowed to restrict student enrollment based on IEP (individualized education plan) status or any other requirements. Students with IEP’s are often met with barriers when approaching schools of choice and many private schools are not funded well enough to enable a student with an IEP to get the services they need. Charter schools operate under a charter that is either issued by a school district, or a State Public Charter School Authority. These enable charter schools to operate with a greater degree of autonomy than public schools. However, according to the State Public Charter Authority, these schools are held highly accountable for student performance. The authority even indicates this is the “basic bargain” for charter schools: autonomy for accountability. Since the boards for charter schools are often shared across their campuses, it is easier for them to respond to issues within their campuses and maintain student and teacher accountability. “Coral Academy can easily respond to a specific school’s needs since we have seven schools under one governing board,” explained Emrullah Eraslan, principal of Coral Academy’s Cadence Campus.
To attend a charter school parents must apply and be put on a waiting list. These waiting lists are then filled through a lottery system which, in most cases, include different weights. For example, students who qualify for the Free and Reduced Lunch program and others who attended a Nevada Head Start program are often weighted higher than other students. Even though many of these charter schools have multiple campuses, parents interested in enrolling their child must apply for each school individually. Many parents who want to enroll their child in a charter school will typically pick a school and apply to all their campuses to increase their chances of attending.
The Benefits of Charter Schools
The autonomy offered for being separate from district schools enables charter schools to decide what their focus will be centered on. While some of the charter schools across Nevada focus heavily on the arts, still others focus on a S.T.E.M (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) approach to student education. Recently many of these schools have noticed the benefit of both approaches and begun implementing a S.T.E.A.M (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) approach to education, which combines the arts focus with the science and technology focus. At Pinecrest Academy, principal Jami Austin explained, “We focus on the whole child, not just their academic success but strengthening their interpersonal and social skills.” Students who attend charter schools are being academically challenged, but they are also being molded and shaped into productive members of society. Legacy Charter Schools educates under the umbrella of core values such as citizenship, responsibility and civic duty.
Since charter schools are publicly funded, they are required by law to accept students across all diversity spectrums. One major problem in Nevada’s public school system is overcrowding, which makes instruction incredibly difficult with tight space and staff constraints. Charter schools assist with this issue by allowing a public school, separate from the district, that can accommodate all types of students and lessen the burden on Nevada’s district schools. With each charter school offering a unique focal point, it enables parents to seek out a school that fits their specific child’s needs instead of a “one-size fits all” approach.
“Anytime you can add choice that has gone through a rigorous authorizing process to an educational landscape, it is going to be a benefit for children,” said Melissa Mackedon, executive director of the State Public Charter School Authority.
Opposition to Charter Schools
There is still some opposition to the existence of charter schools. Much of this opposition is from a misunderstanding as to what a charter is and how they operate. One of these common misunderstandings is that charter schools take money from the school district and are then responsible, in part, for the lack of success found in Nevada’s district schools.
“There is a misconception that charter schools steal money or students, but we are a public school. We take all special education students, and we are not ‘cherry-picking’ students,” says Angela Orr, principal of Doral Academy in Reno. Not only are charter schools not stealing money from district schools, they are finding success despite getting less money per student.
“Charter schools are succeeding with roughly 35 percent less money,” said Orr. This statement is backed up by the Charter School Association of Nevada which claimed that, while public charter schools receive the same state funding per student, they do not receive local tax revenue funding.
Orr advised detractors of charter schools that, instead of opposing them, it might be wiser to imitate their successes. “If our school is doing something so well that parents are leaving district schools, then we should be collaborating to make all of our school systems better,” said Orr.
Some opposition is passive due to the misconception that charter schools are private schools and require tuition as well as receiving public funding. Still more opposition is found in the uphill battle that some parents face in getting their children enrolled in a charter school. With increasingly longer waitlists it can be an exhausting process to find a place in a charter school. However, this slow growth is built into the approval process for a schools’ charter to ensure they are not growing beyond their capacity to assist students.
“Some of our sponsored charter schools are pre-approved to grow by 50 students annually until they reach an agreed upon maximum enrollment,” says Mackedon.
Explosive Growth
Despite the opposition found in Nevada, charter school growth has been explosive. In 2018 there were 42,333 students enrolled in charter schools throughout Nevada, and that number does not include the students who were enrolled in the charter schools authorized by the local school districts. As of last year, the total number of students enrolled in Nevada charter schools authorized under the State Public Charter School Authority was 61,889, a 3.7 percent increase from 2021.
According to Director Mackedon, three new charter schools were added this school year, eight schools opened last year, and six in 2021. She also has stated that they are anticipating adding an additional five schools for the 24/25 school year.
One area that can prove the growth of charter schools in Nevada is the ever-increasing waitlists found at each of the charter schools. According to Principal Orr, Doral Academy in Reno has a waitlist that grows by about 600 to 900 students per year, and they currently have 996 enrolled students. Jennifer Emling, executive director of Legacy Charter Schools, says their waitlist is approximately 3,500 students. Coral Academy, which has a student population across their campuses of approximately 5,500 students, has a waitlist that exceeds 5,000 students. Finally, according to Principal Austin, Pinecrest Academy has 550 students on their waitlist. Combined this is a total of approximately 10,000 students across Nevada waiting to get into a charter school.
While this does not represent individual students, as some of these students may be on multiple different charter schools’ waiting lists, it is still a staggering number.
Another reason for this growth can be found in the overall successes of each charter school.
Principal Eraslan said of his school’s success, “Being positive is the key to our success, we want our teachers to be positive which will cause our parents to be positive and create a family environment here at Cadence.”
According to Eraslan, when the Cadence campus was opened, they brought in 20 teachers to ensure the “Coral Culture” was installed in the new campus. Some charter schools are nationwide and have cultures in place that they can continue to replicate and see continued success. For example, Principal Austin says Pinecrest is part of a national network and they can collaborate nationwide on best practices and use data-driven plans accredited through Cognia.
Nevada’s charter schools also work very closely with one another to best service the state’s children. “I love the charter schools in Nevada, we work together and share resources like space for athletics, successful written policies and even enrollment ideas,” says Emling.
A Bright Future
Owed to the success of charter schools, the states’ legislature has introduced newer legislation aimed at assisting charter school growth. For most charter schools, parents understand that they will be responsible for their child’s transportation to and from school. However, this reality might soon be coming to an end. Nevada’s Assembly introduced Assembly Bill 400, which aims to provide transportation funding for charter schools.
Director Mackedon states that the Charter School Authority has approved 21 charter schools’ transportation plans and funded them as of this year. Not only will this bill allow for some families to have access to charter schools that previously did not, it is also having an immediate positive impact on Nevada’s economy. Bright Yellow Lines, a transportation company in southern Nevada that pioneered charter school transportation has been contracted by several schools already. According to Mackedon, Bright Yellow Lines is headed by a former charter school leader who understood the need for quality transportation.
If Nevadans continue to buy-in on charter schools, and the state legislature continues passing bills enhancing access and resources for charter schools, then the future of charter schools will get brighter and brighter in the coming years.
