Chicago Charter Schools on the Edge

By Sean Stillmaker in News on Aug 14, 2010 4:00PM

Mayor Daley has politicized his Renaissance 2010 program and charter schools as his saving grace for the Chicago Public School system, but looking at recent reports, it’s only fledgling operation. On state performance reports that are measured by the Prairie State Achievement test scores, charter schools are only barely surpassing traditional schools. In addition, charter schools have been running with budget deficits and have the highest teacher turnover, according to a recent analysis by Catalyst Chicago.

Budget cuts for the city’s 71 charter schools this year is estimated at $15 million. As a result charter schools will become more dependent on private donors. In 2007 (the most recent numbers available), charter schools brought in $21 million in private money from foundations, corporations and wealthy individuals. However, data has shown that nearly two thirds could not cover core expenses such as salaries, facilities, and overhead without private money.

The teacher turnover rate for charter schools is also at 25 percent vs. 14 percent for traditional schools, according to a study from the National Center for Education Statistics. The high turnover rate is attributable to the leadership changes within charter schools and the difficulties teachers have with discipline problems in an urban school. Some critics argue though that the turnover rate is a positive because charter schools do not have to deal with unions in regards to keeping poorly performing teachers. Only two charter schools within CPS have teachers who have unionized.