State by State Legislative Analysis of Charter School Policy

Abstract

This report will examine the various state by state policies towards charter schools. It is important to understand the intricacies of charter school legislation because it is not a concept that is universally applied across the country--laws vary greatly from state to state. Some states, such as New Mexico, have legislation that greatly restrict the autonomy of charter schools, while other states, such as Michigan, support highly autonomous and innovative charters. Most charter legislation falls somewhere between these two poles, and this paper places each state's policies within this continuum. The report begins by providing the definition and background of the charter school movement in general before examining the wide variety of state policies towards charter schools. Each state's legislation is analyzed in terms of funding, application procedures, and administration. Individual state results are then used to summarize the local environment in which charter schools operate and place state's legislation within the continuum of charter school policy nationwide. States that do not have a formal charter school policy in place are reviewed in terms of the challenges to initiating charter school legislation. Whatever the terms of the legislation, each state's charter law has grown out of its local environment, regulatory context, balance of political forces, and local perspectives on how charter schools ought to work.