Across the nation, parents and guardians are demonstrating their support for public charter schools with their feet. In the last five years, the number of students who attend public charter schools has grown 100 percent—now surpassing two million students, with more than 600,000 additional students on waiting lists to attend charter schools. Further, NAPCS’s annual analysis of market share of charter schools finds more communities each year are experiencing an increase in charter school enrollment. Today, nearly 100 school districts now have at least 10 percent of their public school students enrolled in public charter schools.
Therefore, the results of the new Phi Delta Kappa (PDK)/Gallup poll that shows the public favors public charter schools by a two to one margin is not surprising. We are a bit surprised that the survey found a drop in support from 2011—but since the drop is within the margin of error, we aren’t too concerned. We know that the charter sector still has a lot of work to do to ensure that everyone understands that charter schools are tuition free, public schools. And, we must balance the results of this poll, positive or negative, with other surveys and, more importantly, what we see on the ground. The EdNext poll, for instance, shows about 40 percent of people remain undecided on their opinions of public charter schools.
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