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More districts, more transpo problems
We are used to hearing—and experiencing—delays, mistakes, and excuses for student busing problems in Ohio’s big-city districts. Officials are always quick to cite the state’s requirement that districts provide transportation to charter and private school students as a major cause of the problem: Eliminate choice busing and everything will be fine. We also know that’s not true, and more proof is at hand in the form of recent survey results from nearly 200 district leaders across Ohio, the majority of which report minimal charter and private school choice students. Their issues and concerns will sound very familiar, indicating that the entire district-based transportation system needs a serious rethink.
The view from Florida
Parents exercising school choice does loom large in this piece from The 74, in which the Florida Charter Institute and Momentum Strategy and Research discuss findings from their recent analysis of school enrollment trends across the Sunshine State. Among other important points, they show that “enrollment in traditional district schools has steadily declined throughout the past decade, leaving over 645,000 seats available in district facilities. Charter school enrollment, meanwhile, has grown by more than 136,000 students over the same period.” This has resulted in a lopsided, inequitable usage of space. Specifically: hundreds of underenrolled district buildings and excessive, unnecessary spending on private space by charter operators. Correcting this situation is the motivation for the state’s expansion of the Schools of Hope program, whereby charter schools can request to share space in those underutilized district buildings. While the law is supposed to limit districts’ grounds for rejecting those requests, we learned just this week that every such request by a charter school in Duval County has been rejected by district officials, just as they have in Orange and Hillsborough County previously.
Innovation required
Thibaut Delloue, a policy fellow at the Florida Charter Institute and one of the authors of the above-mentioned 74 piece, also penned this thoughtful blog post on Fordham’s Flypaper digging into the topic of charter school innovation. Specifically, he cautions charter leaders and supporters not to pursue “faddish approaches to education” in the name of “experimentation”. If folks want to look for the “next big thing,” he concludes, “they would be better advised to read E.D. Hirsch or Booker T. Washington than to take a chance on the latest experiment.”
The future could be here soon
The new year brings new discussion of the topic of the constitutionality of religiously-based charter schools. While the U.S. Supreme Court tied 4-4 on the question last year after one justice recused herself, Erica Meltzer writes in Chalkbeat this week that several new cases are brewing—such as those in Tennessee and Colorado—that likely won’t require any recusals and which could decide the question once and for all should they once again be taken up by the Supreme Court.
You’re invited: National Charter School Summit
The National Charter Schools Institute’s 2026 Summit—titled Bold by Choice—will be held April 27-29, 2026, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The goal is to bring together school leaders, teachers, students, policymakers, advocates, and employers to celebrate successes, to reimagine what young people need to thrive in a rapidly changing world, and to bring those ideas back to their communities. More information and registration details can be found here.
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