School Choice for All? A National Analysis of Where Charter Schools Locate Relative to Poverty

• In Event: School Choice Policies Shaping Neighborhoods, School Locations, and "Destinies"

Abstract

This paper analyzes charter school location relative to the percentage of people living in poverty by census tract. School choice is touted as a way to improve schools for all students, particularly for impoverished and racial minorities who disproportionately attend low performing traditional public schools (Monger, 2012). The goal of the study is to understand the relationship between where charter schools locate relative to community poverty levels.
The existing literature on charter school location typically looks at one city or state. For example, Monger (2012) found a correlation between poverty and charter location in North Carolina. Similarly, a study of school choice in Wisconsin found that the percentage of students who qualified for free or reduced price lunch had a positive relationship to charter location (Witte, Schlomer, and Shober, 2007). Saultz, Fitzpatrick and Jacobsen (2015) found a pattern indicating that new charter schools open in areas of high poverty and high concentrations of people of color, but not in areas of low parent satisfaction in New York City. Conversely, Henig and MacDonald (2002) found that charter schools in the District of Columbia open in high socio-economic status neighborhoods. In sum, the research is mixed on the degree to which charters locate in high poverty areas.
Currently, 43 states and the District of Columbia allow the authorization of charter schools (Egalite & Wolf, 2016). We collected data on the school addresses for every elementary charter school in the country, and plotted the schools using Geographic Information System (GIS) from the CharterSchools.org website, which list the name and address of every charter school (http://www.charterschooltools.org/charterSchools.cfm?stateID=35). We then layered these school locations onto data from the 2010 Census on poverty rates by census tract. We categorized the census tracts as low poverty (< 20 % poverty), moderate poverty (20-40% poverty), and high poverty (>40% poverty). The goal of the analyses was to analyze the proportions of charters locating in high, moderate, and low poverty areas.
Table 1 shows our preliminary findings. Nationally, 51 percent of elementary charter schools (n=2596) locate in census tracts with less than 20% poverty, 31 percent locate in tracts with 20-40% (n=1171) poverty, and 18 percent (n=721) locate in tracts with more than 40% poverty. These findings call to question the notion that charter schools are locating in the highest need areas.
School choice has been a key policy lever for school reform efforts in the 21st Century. This study demonstrates that charter schools, on average, are not locating in the highest poverty areas. As the research mounts on economic segregation in schooling (Reardon, 2011), this study provides empirical evidence on the patterns of charter school location. This should help future researchers and policymakers better understand the supply side of school choice.

Authors

• Andrew Saultz, Miami University - Oxford

• Queenstar Mensa-Bonsu, Miami University

• James Hodges