The National Center for Charter School Accountability (NCCSA), a project of the Network for Public Education, has released the first in a three-part report series titledCharter School Reckoning: Decline, Disillusionment, and Cost.Part I: Decline presents sobering findings on the stagnation, retrenchment, and accelerating closures plaguing the charter school sector.
The report documents that in the first half of 2025,50 charter schools announced closures, many without warning, adding to the218 charter schools that closed or never openedbetween 2022 and 2024. Meanwhile, new school openings have dramatically slowed, with a net gain of only11 more charter schools between 2022-23 and 2023-24- a stark contrast to the hundreds added annually in prior decades.
Despite the decline,federal funding for charter schools has ballooned to $500 million annually, much of it awarded to schools that later failed, misused funds, or never opened at all. Nearly half of the 50 schools that announced closures receiveda combined $102 million from the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP).
“It is no longer credible to claim that demand is surging,” saidCarol Burris, Executive Director of the NCCSA. “This report shows that under-enrollment is now the leading cause of charter failure. Taxpayer dollars should not be used to subsidize school models that abandon families and evade oversight.”
The report also highlights the financial abuses of mega-charters, such asCommonwealth Charter Academy, the largest K-12 school in the United States, which spent nearly$9 million on advertisingwhile only11% of its students were proficient in English and less than 5% in math. Others, likeHighlands Community Charter School, were found by state auditorsto have fraudulently claimed over$180 million in public funds. At the same time, the report noted that 13% of all charter schools have fewer than 100 students, with more than 50 schools having fewer than 12 students.
“The original promise of charter schools has been hijacked by for-profit interests and lax oversight,” saidDiane Ravitch, President of the Network for Public Education. “It's time to stop pouring public money into a broken experiment and reinvest in accountable, transparent, and equitable public schools.”
Part II of Charter School Reckoningwill be released in Fall 2025.
NCCSA is a project of The NetworkforPublic Education,a national public school advocacy organization.
Contact:Carol Burriscburris@networkforpubliceducation.org(646) 678-4477
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SOURCE Network for Public Education
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