Abstract
One of the most contentious urban education policy issues in the United States today is the expansion of charter schools and its repercussions. Does the expansion of charter schools affect the racial and socioeconomic composition of traditional public schools in the United States? This study provides empirical evidence on this question by relying on a panel design that uses school-level data from two states that have experimented with charter schools for more than 15 years: Ohio and Texas. Using county-level, spatial, and enrollment-based measures of charter exposure, the changes from pre- to post-charter-legislation stages in the student compositions of public schools that do and do not face competition from charters are examined. The results suggest that charter school presence contributes to aggregate-level changes in the share of non-Hispanic White and free-lunch-eligible students in traditional public schools in both states in different ways.
Highlights
While the average changes in the composition of students served by public schools cannot capture the full extent of segregation or integration in schools, this study focuses on composition of student body as a first step in beginning to understand whether the charter school movement contributes to how student groups are sorted across schools
As charter schools continue to proliferate around the country and to attract public and scholarly attention, their impact on the public education system comes to the forefront as a major public policy question
Many discussions of such systemwide effects revolve around the academic achievement issues; changes in the composition of the student body is another important dimension of system-wide effects created by the introduction of charter schools in the public education system
Summary
While the average changes in the composition of students served by public schools cannot capture the full extent of segregation or integration in schools, this study focuses on composition of student body as a first step in beginning to understand whether the charter school movement contributes to how student groups are sorted across schools. Wamba and Ascher (2003) described several examples from different states, such as schools tailored to specific populations by adopting specific curriculum content to cater to minority parents or private to charter conversion schools, which take advantage of the new laws to gain access to government funds without necessarily changing enrollment. Some of these strategies may lead to concentrations of certain types of students. Public schools may change if charter schools influence the student composition of public schools by absorbing more disadvantaged or problematic students or by attracting the best and brightest students
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