The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools finds that charter school enrollment increased nine percent from 2019 to 2023.
According to new analysis from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, during the COVID-19 pandemic, charter school enrollment increased 9 percent. From 2019 to 2023, charter schools have enrolled over 300,000 new students nationwide. This comes as traditional public school enrollment declines concerningly around the country — losing 1.5 million students over that same time period, or roughly a 3.5 percent drop.
According to reporting:
The National Alliance looked at data from the 2019-20 through 2022-23 school years and found that in 40 of the 42 states studied, charter school enrollment increased, ranging from 35 students in both Virginia and Wyoming to 67,148 students in Texas.
The data found increases in charter school enrollment of students of color:
- Hispanic students made up about half of the overall charter school enrollment growth and represented a nearly 14 percent increase in 26 states between the 2019-20 and 2022-23 school years.
- Black student enrollment grew by 6 percent.
- White student enrollment rose by 1.6 percent in those years.
Dropping public school enrollment is particularly concerning to school funding. In Maryland, the State conducts an annual enrollment or “head count” of all students enrolled at a full time equivalent (FTE) in the state’s public schools on the same day every year — Sept 30. That head count is important not only to inform statewide education policies and data, but also for counties as a major funder of our public schools.
The enrollment count plays a crucial role in school funding formulas in Maryland and is ultimately one factor in determining how much funding local school districts will get in the state’s budget via “per pupil” spending. This happens through the Foundation Program Formula — the main program in general education aid and accounts for about half of state-funded aid.
