"Just Make Them a Charter School": A Paradoxical Relationship Between Districts and Charter Schools

• In Event: Roundtable Session 39
  In Roundtable Session: School Districts and Choice Policies

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the paradoxical relationship traditional public school districts have with charter schools and charter policy. Drawing on a combination of document analysis, discourse analysis, and semi-structured interview data collected from 2013-2015, this article explores some unexpected complexities of these relationships. This paper argues that districts use the existence of charter legislation as an unorthodox solution for dealing with complex issues that arise within their boundaries.

Author

• Sarah Butler Jessen, Bowdoin College