Profit and Poverty Rates in Charter School Markets: Education Management Organizations and Socioeconomic Stratification

• In Event: 35.082 - Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 35.082-3 - Charter Schools and Institutions

Abstract

There is rising economic inequality in the United States, increasing spatial polarization of poorer and wealthier families, and an increasing polarization of schooling outcomes for students from poor and wealthy families (Bischoff & Reardon, 2013, Reardon, 2011). Meanwhile some charter schools actively target “students with less-risky socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds” (Gulosino and Lubienski, 2011, p. 20). This paper examines gaps between the average socioeconomic status of students attending charter schools versus traditional public schools in six large urban districts with high proportions or charter schools operated by both for-profit and non-profit education management organizations (EMOs). The paper finds significant demographic disparities in five of six districts, indicating a possibility that the proliferation of EMOs may increase socioeconomic stratification.

Author

• William Brett Robertson, Washington University in St. Louis