The economics of charter schools

Charter schools are an educational reform that provides alternatives to the traditional public school system for students and parents. They are granted greater autonomy for management of the school but are subjected to greater accountability for results. In this chapter, we tackle four contentious policy issues surrounding these schools of choice. First, we examine the profile of students attending charter schools and how this affects the profile of students in traditional public schools. We then compare funding between charter schools and traditional public schools. Next, we review the literature on the effects charter schools have had on the achievement of their students. Lastly, we ask how charter school competition has affected the performance of traditional public schools.