Blog 4- Charter Competition

Charter schools promote competition with traditional schools by creating a market of free, public education. (One could also argue that private, home-schooling, and religious education also creates a competitive market; however, these schools require monetary contributions—thus forming a different level of education that may not be accessible for all families; namely, the poor.)

By providing another free alternative, dissatisfied parents can move their child to a charter school. Parents may be attracted to specific programs offered (such as Bilingual program or a math/science focus), they may want a smaller community that provides more individualized attention, or a charter may advocate values that the parents support.

In the case of DC, the public schools are so weak that more and more students are enrolling at charter schools—increasing their demand (and overtime, increasing their supply). This explains why the District of Columbia has a growing number of charter schools, which serve approximately 25% of the District’s students. As this need for charters increases, the public schools are losing students, decreasing their demand and depleting their funding. This market atmosphere (the gain/loss of students—or consumers) pressures public schools to improve facilities, provide extra programs, hire better teachers… in order to keep current and attract new students.

In DC, it is not clear whether charter schools are forcing DCPS schools to improve; however, Superintendent Janey released a statement to the Washington Post that he intends to produce a ‘master plan’ for traditional schools in response to the pressures of the growing charter community. So, some steps are being made toward improvement because of this competitive education market.