New report: NC charter schools meeting financial goals, but not academic targets

Charters, which are publicly funded and privately run schools, have been booming in North Carolina with more than 111,000 students enrolled at 184 schools across the state last year. Twelve more charters opened this year, and 10 more are expected next year – putting the state's count at 206 charter schools.

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Of North Carolina's 172 charter schools during the 2017-18 school year, 94% met or exceeded all financial and operational goals. Three years earlier, only 32% of charter schools did the same.

Joseph Letterio, an education consultant with the North Carolina Office of Charter Schools, credited the improvement to more oversight, scrutiny and communication from the charter schools office.

"We wanted to give good feedback to schools so they can make corrections," he said.

The state's charter schools didn't fare as well academically, according to the report.

Nearly 69% of charters met or exceeded academic growth expectations, but that number has continued to decline for several years as the schools have failed to reach the 75% threshold set by the state.

During the 2017-18 school year, 28 of the state's charter schools were deemed continually low performing, even though the state set a goal of no more than nine schools being labeled that way. The year before, 20 charters were continually low performing. The designation means the schools have been low performing for at least two of the past three years.

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Dave Machado, director of North Carolina's Office of Charter Schools, said his office helped set the goals.

"We got a little aggressive in some of the goals, but I thought we needed to be," he told charter school advisory board members Monday. "But I think we’re definitely trending in the right direction."

Charter enrollment in North Carolina has increased more than 200 percent in the past 10 years. State funding for them has grown from about $16.5 million in 1997, when there were 34 schools, to now more than $580 million, a 3,415 percent increase. Of the $8.93 billion in state funding for public education, 6.5 percent is allotted to charter schools.