Dive Brief:

• Public school districts are reassessing their strategies as school choice and open enrollment create more competition from charter, private, and parochial schools.
• In some districts, like Ohio's Lakota Local School District, private schools have advertised on billboards and television, leading the district to counter with a web content specialist for social media.
• Other districts have seen success by improving the programs their schools have to offer or by convincing parents to put their children back in their neighborhood schools by citing benefits like provided transportation and a sense of community, District Administration reports.

Dive Insight:

According to District Administration, an estimated $10,000 leaves a district with a student when they decide to attend a charter school. Changes made by one district, Florida's Broward County Public Schools, almost doubled its enrollment over a three-year period to 40,000 from 23,000. Among them: a Montessori elementary school, dual-language programming, and a center for early education.

With that kind of success, other struggling districts should probably be paying attention, since a recent Michigan State University study found that charter supporters largely use much more convincing language when doing so.