Dive Brief:
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Charter schools that got federal funding were about 1.5 times less likely to close than those that did not receive an award through the Charter Schools Programs between fiscal years 2006 and 2020, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday. Within 12 years of receiving CSP grants, the same pattern generally held.
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The report also found states awarded about $152 million, or 8%, of these grants to charter schools that closed or never opened. About 14% of charter schools, or 638 schools, that received CSP State awards — the largest CSP grant program — closed or never opened, according to the GAO analysis.
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Overall, 6,023 CSP grants — totaling about $2.5 billion — were awarded between fiscal 2006 and 2020, the most recent years with comparable data available, GAO said.
Dive Insight:
This is the first review of the charter school grants program carried out since at least 2013, said Jacqueline Nowicki, who has been overseeing GAO's K-12 work since then. Nowicki is GAO director of education, workforce, and income security.
It is in line with ramped-up scrutiny of charter schools under the Biden administration, beginning with campaign promises by then-candidate Joe Biden, who pledged to set rules and priorities around charters, as well as limit funding for those that didn't provide results.
In this new report, GAO said, "Questions have been raised about the effectiveness of CSP grants,"
The report shows California, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin had the most CSP State awards to charter schools that closed or never opened. Out of those, California, Texas and Florida had the most funding for charter schools that closed or never opened, at $10 million or more.
According to the report, state education agency officials in five states said they recover funds, reallocate funds to future charter schools, and redistribute purchases made by the charter school authorizer to other charter schools when subgrants are awarded to charter schools that closed or never opened.
This report comes on the heels of another released last week that found more than half of states and charter management organization grant recipients have unspent federal funds they committed to using to expand or create charter schools.
According to that data, 94 Charter School Programs grant recipients had only reached 51% of that goal, which amounts to 798 schools opened or expanded. States opened or expanded fewer than half of the 1,076 schools they promised.
Meanwhile, CSP grant rules finalized in July by the Biden administration would make it harder for charters to access federal funds and expand. Among the new requirements is a needs analysis to be completed by applicants, which will assess the viability of and need for a charter in a community.
Through those requirements, the Department of Education said it sought "to promote greater fiscal and operational transparency and accountability for CSP-funded charter schools."
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