Why do I never / rarely hear about charter schools? (Arlington: low income, house)

[SyZ]

Bunch of buddies of mine are in that stage where their kids are 1-4 ish and they're talking about public / private / home school. Only 1 has brought up charter.

Why are they rarely sought out / desired?

Is this different in other cities / states?

[Wittgenstein's Ghost]

Most people on this forum who have school-aged kids either live in a good school district or have the money for private school. But charters are alive and well. I live in Colorado now, and I know multiple people who send their kids to charter schools. In fact, one of the highest-performing schools in all of the Pikes Peak region is a charter school. Colorado actually allows choicing into other districts than your zoned district if there is space (this would be heresy in DFW), but it's surprising how few people take advantage of that. More people seem to choose the charter route if they live in a district with poor schools.

[TurtleCreek80]

I don’t know a ton about charters - there really aren’t any anywhere near my house in Preston Hollow so we didn’t consider them at all. But it does seem that locally the best ones like Uplift (was Northern Hills Prep in Irving) are lottery-based so the average person has a snowball’s chance of winning that lotto.

Unfortunately, a lot of local charter schools have been in the news over the years for negative reasons like fraud, tax evasion, financial mismanagement, etc.

My opinion of them as a whole is that it’s a for-profit network designed to exploit low income neighborhoods /families - masquerading as a public school alternative, but in reality mostly a get rich scheme for the operators who abuse taxpayer funding & vouchers. Across the board with few exceptions, they don’t seem to be lifting the educational experience or getting better results.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by SyZ

... Only 1 has brought up charter.

Is this different in other cities / states?

Yes... Very different!

Why are they rarely sought out / desired?
It's Texas

1) ISD's rule the roost (check your tax statements)
2) "This is how we've always done it!" ad nauseum ('Good-ole-boy' network, protect that gravy train!)
3) Texas has tremendous complexity (and expense) that other states don't (huge number of counties + many more ISD's that other states). My TX county has fewer people than many towns, and a tiny land area, but all the infrastructure a county requires, + several ISD's

Some ISD's are pretty good (and most are very well funded)
But... there are some choices...
https://txcharterschools.org/find-a-charter-school/

[75214Dad]

Charters in DFW are 95% low income. This board is not.

There are a couple of charters that are pretending not to be religious, and they have some higher SES kids. I imagine they’ll be shut down if we get a new TEA commissioner.

[NTXPerson]

Charters aren’t really a thing pushed here. There are a few in the metroplex that are primarily in low income areas that say they can provide a “private school” experience for free. However, they have gotten a bad reputation because so many have failed or were being defrauded by the private entity. The only reputable charter school I can think of is North Hills Preparatory in Irving. It has been around for a long time.

I would say another thing is that the school districts here get funding based on attendance and the number of kids that go to their schools. So, it’s in the district’s best efforts to be as competitive as they can so they don’t lose too many kids.

[Taub201]

Uplift Prep has some solid charter schools, including North Hills, where parents commit to being involved.

[Leonard123]

Originally Posted by 75214Dad

Charters in DFW are 95% low income. This board is not.

There are a couple of charters that are pretending not to be religious, and they have some higher SES kids. I imagine they’ll be shut down if we get a new TEA commissioner.

They have one in Prosper. That isn't really even close to a low income area. I don't know if the Prosper schools are considered good or not, but evidently some do choose charter schools in high income areas.

I can say it's certainly ten times more attractive than that hideous-looking monstrosity on Frontier Prosper calls a high school.

[tcualum]

There's a well-regarded nonprofit charter school in Arlington called Arlington Classics Academy.

[CMC_TX]

This is the main one I know of, only because when they built it, I wondered what the building that looked like a prison / church hybrid was:

https://hsidallas.harmonytx.org/

It’s been there now a while.

To be honest, the main charter school in DFW that has a “decent” reputation is Westlake Academy and has for quite some time.