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New Research Finds Stronger Charter Laws in States With Large Hispanic and College-Educated Populations

Posted on: Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 09:01 CST

States with large Hispanic populations and high numbers of college-educated adults are more likely to pass supportive charter school legislation, as are states with weak academic performance as measured by students' SAT scores, find economists Christiana Stoddard of Montana State University and Sean Corcoran of New York University in the new issue of Education Next (spring 2008). They also find that the size of a state's African-American population and high school dropout rates are strongly associated with increased enrollment in charter schools.

According to Stoddard and Corcoran's research, states with an Hispanic population that is 14 percent higher than the average are about 10 percent more likely to pass a strong charter law (as measured by the Center for Education Reform's charter school law strength index). In addition, they found that a 12.1 percent increase in a state's African American population is associated with roughly a 2 percent increase in charter school enrollment, in effect, double the charter school enrollment in the average state. Strong charter laws also appear earlier in those states in which the percentage of adults with at least a college education is higher than average.

Stoddard and Corcoran looked at legislation and patterns in the presence of charter schools and in their enrollments at both the state and local levels using demographic, financial, political, and school performance data from 1990 to 2004, including the most recent information from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data.

In examining changes in demographic characteristics between 1980 and 1990, Stoddard and Corcoran found that districts with a rising fraction of black or college-educated individuals saw greater participation in charter schools. In addition, they found that districts in which income inequality was rising saw greater participation in charter schools in the 1990s.

Stoddard and Corcoran find a positive relationship between the fraction of students enrolled in private schools before the passage of charter laws and law passage and strength. The researchers suggest that this may be due to private school parents supporting public charter schools as a substitute for private schools or that it may be related to broad dissatisfaction with public schools and a generally higher demand for alternatives.

Interestingly, the authors also find that teachers' unions, leading opponents of charter schools, appear to contribute indirectly to their expansion. In states that have both strong unions and strong charter laws, more families seek out charter schools as an educational alternative for their children.

"Charter Politics" is now online at www.EducationNext.org.

Christiana Stoddard is an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University. Sean Corcoran is assistant professor of educational economics at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University.

Education Next is a scholarly journal published by the Hoover Institution that is committed to looking at hard facts about school reform. Other sponsoring institutions are the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Caleb Offley (585) 319-4541 Hoover Institution Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-6010 www.hoover.org

Source: Business Wire

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