Are Charter Schools Public Schools?

Charter school advocates have always desperately sought to convince themselves and the public that privately-run nonprofit and for-profit charter schools that operate like businesses are actually public and similar in many ways to public schools.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Charter schools are not public schools.
In reality, privately-operated nonprofit and for-profit charter schools differ in many profound ways from public schools that have been educating 90 percent of America’s youth for more than a century.
Below is an abbreviated list of the many ways in which privately-operated nonprofit and for-profit charter schools differ significantly from public schools.

1. Charter schools are exempt from dozens, even hundreds, of state and local laws, rules, regulations, policies, and agreements that apply to all public schools.
2. At least 90% of charter schools have no teacher unions—the opposite of public schools.
3. Some charter school owners-operators openly and publicly insist that charter schools are private entities.

1. Unlike public schools, charter schools are not governed by a publicly elected school board, but by a self-selecting, corporate-style board of trustees.
2. Many charter schools are not subject to audits, at least not in the same way as public schools.
3. Many charter schools do not uphold open-meeting laws; they dodge many such public requirements.
4. Many charter schools do not provide the same services as public schools, e.g., transportation, nurses, food, sports, education services, etc.
5. Thousands of charter schools are directly and/or indirectly owned, operated, or managed by private, for-profit entities.
6. Many, if not most, charter schools regularly use discriminatory student enrollment practices. Students with disabilities and English Language Learners in particular are usually under-represented in charter schools. So are homeless students and other students.

1. In some states charter schools are permitted to hire teachers with no license or certification; in other states charter schools can hire a percentage of teachers with no license or certification.
2. Many charter schools entail loss of voter voice (e.g., through the creation of non-profits that can claim public funds without voter approval).
3. Unlike public schools, charter schools cannot levy taxes and the public cannot vote on school budgets.
4. Unlike public schools, charter schools rest on the ideologies of competition, consumerism, and individualism, as well as the chaos, anarchy, and uncertainty of the “free market.” Winning and losing are considered healthy and normal. More than 3,000 charter schools have closed in 28 years, leaving thousands of families dislocated, angry, and disillusioned.
5. In 2016, the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency, determined that charter schools are private entities.
6. The Supreme Court in the state of Washington ruled in 2015 that charter schools are not public schools and cannot receive public funds because they are not governed by publicly elected officials.

1. Joining other courts, in 2009 and 2010 the Court of Appeals of New York, in two separate cases, ruled that charter schools are not public entities and/or not subject to the same practices and laws as public schools.

NY CHARTER SCHOOL v. DiNAPOLI. 13 N.Y.3d 120 (2009). Court of Appeals of New York.
CHARTER SCHOOL v. Smith. 15 N.Y. 3rd 403 (2010).  Court of Appeals of New York.

1. 1. The non-profit and/or for-profit status of charter schools positions them outside the public sphere (and in the so-called “Third Sector”).
   2. Charter schools rely more heavily on charity and philanthropic aid than public schools.
   3. Unlike public schools, and much like a business, charter schools often spend large sums of money on marketing & advertising their deregulated schools to parents.
   4. Charter means contract. Charter schools are contract Performance contracts are at the heart of charter schools. Contract is the quintessential market category. Contracts make commerce possible. Contract law is part of private law, not public law. Charter schools are legally classified as nonprofits or for-profits. Unlike public schools, they are not political subdivisions of the state. In some places, like New York State, charter schools are not considered political subdivisions of the state. Unlike public schools, charter schools are not state agencies.

1. Many state constitutions state that public education cannot be operated by or serve sectarian or private interests; nor can public funds flow to them.
2. Last, but not least, an entity does not become public just because it is labeled public or repeatedly called public. Nor does something become public just because it receives public funds. And being “tuition-free” does not automatically make an entity public either. Being public in the modern sense of the word requires much more.

Many other differences between public schools and charter schools could be listed. The point is that charter school advocates remain as desperate as ever to portray charter schools as public schools so as to have a modicum of legitimacy and in order to seize extremely enormous amounts of funds and property from public schools.
Stopping privatization in all its forms is a key responsibility confronting the public at this time.