Information about charter school authorizers

The charter school authorizer is the agency which receives a charter school application, reviews it, and then ultimately determines if the proposed charter school will open, or not. The authorizing agency is also tasked with providing some measure of oversight during the term of the charter school’s contract; it is sometimes referred to as the sponsor. One concern which has arisen in this era of rapid charter school expansion is inadequate staffing of those agencies’ charter school offices.  

The top ten states with the most authorizers are:

CA	293
WI	84
OH	69
OR	67
PA	51
MN	49
CO	47
FL	45
GA	39
MI	32

“Shopping” for an authorizer occurs in states that have multiple authorizers with jurisdiction over the same physical area. For example in California, if an initial charter school application or renewal is rejected by the board of a local city school district, the applicant can then seek approval from board of that district's County Office of Education, and/or from the California State Board of Education. This regularly occurs. In at least one case in Oklahoma, the local school board refused to renew the charter for a school with a long history of problems (note: it is a Gulen charter school). The school then sought and received approval from a local higher education institution (Langston University) which enabled Langston U. to receive a 5% cut of the charter school’s funding.

Charter school promoters are actively monitoring the growth of the charter school market share. They help each other with strategies and techniques that advance the establishment of more charter schools. They put their heads together to steadily press on the loosening of restrictions on charter school law in each and every state. 

Charter school promoters are extremely well-funded by a small set of America’s most powerful families. These families have established organizations into which they pour their immense wealth, which are then used to fund projects which advance those individuals' own notions about public education policy – many aspects of which have never been proven by research, or are even at the top of the list for changes that public school families desire. Unfortunately, the interests of these arrogant and powerful individuals have everything to do with the privatization of a valuable public asset as well as the diminishing of the public's genuine power.

The following data is provided by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers and the U.S. Census. NACSA’s main funders are the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Robertson Foundation, and The Walton Family Foundation.*

State	# authorizers	# charter schools	Authorizer types**	Public elementary and secondary school enrollment: 2008-2009
AK	8	24	LEA	132,000
AR	1	30	SEA	481,000
AZ	7	507	ICB, LEA, SEA	1,076,000
CA	293	900	LEA, SEA	6,177,000
CO	47	70	ICB, LEA	832,000
CT	1	18	SEA	564,000
DC	1	97	ICB	69,000
DE	2	19	SEA, LEA	125,000
FL	45	460	HEI, LEA	2,635,000
GA	39	91	ICB, LEA	1,668,000
HI	1	31	ICB	180,000
IA	8	8	LEA	482,000
ID	14	41	ICB, LEA	276,000
IL	9	116	LEA, SEA	2,097,000
IN	5	60	HEI, LEA, MUN, SEA	1,047,000
KS	23	32	LEA	469,000
LA	6	92	LEA, SEA	691,000
MA	1	63	SEA	957,000
MD	6	40	LEA	848,000
ME	TBD***	2	LEA, SEA	184,000
MI	32	249	HEI, LEI	1,618,000
MN	49	148	HEI, LEA, NFP, SEA	837,000
MO	12	36	HEI, LEA	917,000
NC	1	100	SEA	1,477,000
NH	1	10	SEA	197,000
NJ	1	73	SEA	1,387,000
NM	18	81	LEA, SEA	333,000
NV	5	28	LEA, SEA	429,000
NY	2****	176	HEI, LEA, SEA	2,766,000
OH	69	342	HEI, LEA, NFP	1,762,000
OK	4	18	HEI, LEA	655,000
OR	67	108	LEA, SEA	554,000
PA	51	146	LEA, SEA	1,762,000
RI	1	15	SEA	144,000
SC	16	44	ICB, LEA	723,000
TN	3	29	LEA	973,000
TX	15	572	LEA, SEA	4,850,000
UT	7	86	ICB, LEA	583,000
VA	3	4	LEA	1,245,000
WI	84	209	HEI, LEA, MUN	872,000
WY	3	3	LEA	88,000
AL	No legislation			749,000
KY	No legislation			676,000
MS	No legislation			492,000
MT	No legislation			142,000
ND	No legislation			93,000
NE	No legislation			295,000
SD	No legislation			124,000
VT	No legislation			86,000
WA	No legislation			1,035,000
WV	No legislation			283,000

* The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools actively monitors the charter school market share. Its funders include the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Doris and Donald Fisher Fund, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Robertson Foundation, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, the William E. Simon Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation, as well as the National Charter School Resource Center in association with the currently very charter school-friendly U.S. Department of Education.

** Authorizer types

• HEI = Higher Education Institutions
• ICB = Independent Chartering Boards
• LEA = Local Education Agencies (school districts)
• MUN = Mayors/Municipalities
• NFP = Not-For-Profit Organizations
• SEA = State Education Agencies (commissioners, state boards of education, or offices within SEAs that report to commissioners or state boards of education)

*** Maine’s charter school law is relatively new (2011). It allows two types of entities to authorize charter schools: 1.) the Maine Charter School Commission (allowed to authorize a maximum of 10 charter schools throughout the state during the first 10 years) and 2.) Local school boards (authorizes charter schools within the boundaries of their school units)

**** NACSA's website reports 4 authorizers in NY. This was corrected by a reader. See the first comment.

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