Do Charter Schools Outspend Public Schools Online? Evidence from Texas

Abstract

ABSTRACT As open enrollment public charter school districts have continued to grow in Texas, researchers and policymakers have continued to question how these public charter school districts spend public taxpayer dollars. Although extensive research has addressed how public charter school districts spend money to recruit teachers, complete capital projects, and hire school leaders, no studies have examined how public charter school districts compete with traditional public school districts online to drive traffic and interest in their schools. Using Texas Education Agency and SEMrush data (web metrics, such as organic keywords, organic traffic, and traffic cost) from the 2018–2019 school year, this study compares public charter school district and traditional public school district web metrics to learn more about how charter school districts continue to open and drive enrollment. Results suggest that, when compared to traditional public school districts in Texas, public charter school districts in Texas are less web popular by keyword search (p < .00) and traffic (p < .00), yet these districts spend more on driving Internet traffic to their websites (p < .00) than traditional public school districts. Implications for research, policy, and competition between open enrollment public charter school districts and traditional public school districts are addressed.