Myth 3: Districts Cannot Reduce Expenses.
In response to the challenge from charter schools, school districts often claim that they cannot act quickly enough to reduce expenses. District enrollments often fluctuate for a variety of reasons, such as changing home prices, new housing developments, and routine student mobility. As a result of these natural fluctuations, districts are forced to reduce expenses quickly and adapt to the new fiscal realities of their changing enrollment numbers. Furthermore, new charter schools do not come into existence without warning. Given the time it takes to authorize a charter and the increasingly popular practice of providing a “planning year” before opening, a charter school’s impact on enrollment is far more predictable than that caused by others.
Some districts have also complained that charter schools do not enroll enough students to allow the districts to cut expenses significantly. In communities where charter schools enroll hundreds or thousands of students each year, the scale does exist for the district to respond in a timely manner. When facing shrinking enrollments, the district can choose to consolidate classrooms or schools; when confronting growing enrollments, the district can opt to delay adding personnel, buildings, or schools. If districts cannot adapt to these changes, their inability to respond effectively is likely due to reasons other than the establishment of community-driven charter schools.
Myth 4: Charter Schools Cause Teachers to lose their jobs.
Charter schools hire teachers to educate the students in their schools, so they produce a net gain in teaching opportunities for the community. The number of available teaching positions in traditional district-run public schools due to turnover is typically higher than the number of teaching positions that can be consolidated due to charter schools. A 2004 study of teacher turnover found the national annual turnover rate to be over 15 percent. [5] Unless charter schools provide the opportunity for a district to consolidate by more than 15 percent of its teaching force, reduction in the teaching force due to charters allows the district to reduce their hiring needs through attrition. The claim that charter schools will cause teachers to lose their jobs is therefore unfounded.