Charter school

Nature

Charter schools get public money but run independently of the local school district. A charter management organization, or CMO, often operates them; most CMOs are nonprofits that handle central services for a group of charters, though for-profit management companies also exist. An authorizer holds each charter school accountable. People disagree on whether to call charters private or public schools. Supporters point out they don't charge tuition, making them public. Critics argue their private management and weak public oversight make them more like privately run institutions that are publicly funded.

By country

In Australia, private schools have been receiving federal funding since the 1970s and currently teach about 30% of high school students. However, none of these schools are considered charter schools because they all charge tuition fees. Since 2009, Western Australia has been running a trial called the Independent Public School (IPS) Initiative, which gives public schools more independence. While these schools are similar to charter schools, the term itself is not used in Australia.

The first charter school in Bulgaria opened in 1990 in Sofia, named 151 General Education School with Interest-Based Profiles. In Canada, Alberta passed a law in 1994 to allow charter schools, and the first three—New Horizons Charter School, Suzuki Charter School, and the Centre for Academic and Personal Excellence—started in 1995. As of 2015, Alberta is still the only Canadian province with charter schools. There are 23 charter school campuses run by 13 schools in Alberta.

The province used to cap the number of charter schools at 15, but that limit was removed in September 2020. Chile has a long tradition of private subsidized schooling, which works much like charter schools in the United States. Before the 1980s, most of these schools were religious and owned by churches or private groups, but they got support from the central government. In the 1980s, Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship pushed neoliberal changes, and in 1981 a competitive voucher system was introduced.

These vouchers could be used at public schools or private subsidized schools, including for-profit ones. After this reform, the share of private subsidized schools jumped from 18.5% in 1980 to 32.7% in 2001. By 2012, nearly 60% of Chilean students were attending charter schools.