Fair Trade: Five Deals to Expand and Improve Charter Schooling

Charter schools and their opponents are often locked in unproductive confrontations. But there are bargains that they can—and should—strike that address legitimate concerns of charter school critics, while allowing high-quality charter schools to expand and serve more students.

In a new Idea at Work, Andrew J. Rotherham outlines five such win-win deals:

1. Trading charter school caps for more rapid expansion of proven charter schools.
2. Trading the high test scores from some charter schools for space for charter schools to operate.
3. Linking transitional aid for public schools to access to facilities for charter schools.
4. Joining the effort to improve school finance with the expansion of charter schooling.
5. Unionizing some charter schools with teachers' contracts that reflect the core values of charter schooling.

This research was funded by The Annie E. Casey Foundation. We thank them for their support but acknowledge that the findings and conclusions presented in this report are those of the author alone and do not represent the opinions of the foundation.