Our nation’s roughly 1,000 charter school authorizers are essential to expanding the number of quality public schools across the country. Authorizers make daily decisions that shape the quantity and the quality of charter schools—directly impacting the more than three million children currently attending charter schools and potentially millions more.
Given their important role in approving new schools and closing failing ones, it’s critical to explore how authorizers are impacting charter school growth and enrollment as a whole.
By taking an inside look at the numbers, this analysis seeks to do just that. Is the current slowdown on charter school growth related to a lower approval rate for charter applications? Do states that add more authorizers see more growth? Explore our key findings on charter school openings, closings, and authorizers below.