600 New Charter Schools Established

An estimated 600 new public charter schools opened for the 2013-2014 school year, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ (NAPCS) annual charter school report.

With the new schools in place, an additional 288,000 students are attending charters this school year, placing the total number of Americans in public charter schools at 2.5 million. That is an increase of 7 percent in the number of public charters and a 13 percent increase in student enrollment.

200 charter schools that were open in the last academic year closed their doors this past fall, for reasons ranging from low enrollment to financial problems to poor academic performance. NAPCS took the closures as evidence that charter schools work, with successful institutions staying open but those that fail to meet the needs of their students closing.

The report also looked at some state-specific figures for charter schools:

– California opened the most new charters for 2013-2014, with 104 new schools serving 48,000 additional students. The state also had the highest number of school closures, with 39 charters closing this year.
– Arizona, Florida and Texas followed California with the largest increases in charters, adding an additional 87, 75 and 52 new schools, respectively. That increase meant that Arizona upped enrollment by 39,000 students, with Florida adding 33,000 students and Texas adding 36,000.

With the closures, the net gain for charters in the 2013-2014 school year is 436 new schools, placing the total number of charters nationwide at 6,440.

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