Dive Brief:

• Education Secretary John King advocated lifting charter caps this week ahead of a ballot initiative in Massachusetts that would do just that, though many Democrats oppose the measure.
• The Christian Science Monitor reports King, a charter founder himself, said the country is fortunate to have high-performing charter schools that help students succeed academically and go on to college at higher rates than their peers in traditional public schools — two reasons not to prevent their growth.
• Early polling indicates Massachusetts voters are set to keep the cap in place rather than allow 12 new charters per year to be created in the state, but King advocated putting kids first and allowing successful charters to expand their reach.

Dive Insight:

Charter schools have become increasingly controversial as they educate a larger share of U.S. students. Research is mixed on their efficacy. Just like outcomes at traditional public schools vary widely, the same can be said of charters. In Boston, the heart of the charter cap debate in Massachusetts, the charter sector is known to be relatively high-performing when compared to neighborhood schools. Researchers have found strong, positive effects, especially for disadvantaged student populations. In the suburbs and rural parts of the state data shows charters perform worse than traditional neighborhood schools.

The Movement for Black Lives has recently called for a moratorium on the creation of new charter schools as communities figure out how to regulate the sector’s growth and ensure only high-performing charters are allowed to operate. Massachusetts has a particularly rigorous process for approving new charters and it has closed several schools that do not meet expectations. Michigan is among those states with far weaker policies, making it easier for lower-performing schools to open and remain.