Do Cyber Charters Segregate or Integrate? Evidence From a Large Education Management Organization

• In Event: School Choice and Questions of Equity

Abstract

I use data from an education management organization to assess whether enrollment in cyber charters exacerbates or ameliorates racial segregation, generally finding evidence for the latter. Students from the four largest racial groups (i.e. white, Black, Hispanic, Asian) transfer into cyber schools in which their racial group has lower representation than the school from which they transferred. About 1 in 5 students transferred from an intensely segregated public school (i.e. 90% or more white or 90% or more non-white), while fewer than one percent of students transferred into one. Districts from which students transferred also benefit: Asian, Black and Hispanic students are disproportionately (relative to other groups) drawn from schools where they are over-represented relative to the district average.

Author

• Ian Kingsbury, Educational Freedom Institute