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The Promise and Peril of Charter Schools
by John Danner & J.C. Bowman Texas Education Review Winter 2003-04 ![]()
This study examines the promise of charter schools to revolutionize American education and the perils we face by not addressing their critical problems. One of the primary tenets of the charter school movement is that the establishment of a critical mass of charter schools will force school districts to change their own educational practices in order to compete effectively. This day is not far off.
Charter schools have increased at a rate of over 30% per year for the past five years, resulting in over 2,700 schools in operation as of 2001 (Center for Education Reform, 2000a; Nelson et al., 2000). This article defines a means for determining the number of charter schools required for critical mass and predicts that critical mass will be reached with 10,000 schools. Based on conservative growth rates, we predict this milestone will be achieved by the year 2008. In order to reach critical mass, state charter policymakers must focus on the obstacles and opportunities presented by today's laws. This study discusses the aspects of today's charter laws that limit the number of new schools created and weaken the viability of all charter schools. Despite these hurdles, charter schools have tremendous promise. We discuss some of the early results from school districts, which have already responded to a critical mass of charter schools |