Charter schools operate under a pretty simple premise: They take innovative approaches to learning that deliver performance results for students. Charter schools are free to all children, just like any public school in the Little Rock School District (LRSD), regardless of income, race or religion.
- Unlike LRSD schools, charter schools are held accountable for their results. If charter schools don’t meet the academic standards they have set for students, they are shut down.
- Charter schools offer freedom of choice for any family. The schools give families a choice to pick the school most suitable for their child’s educational needs.
- While charter schools are held to the same major laws and regulations as LRSD, they have the flexibility to set and reach higher academic standards for their students.
- For the 2010 school year, 2,900 students were enrolled in charter schools in Pulaski County. Of those, only 266 students transferred that year from the LRSD, and 191 of them were minority students.
- Enrollment in public charter schools has had no effect on enrollment or desegregation efforts in the Little Rock School District.
- In fact, charter schools are drawing more students back into public education. New students comprise the majority of new enrollments in charter schools each year.
- And charter schools are actually improving integration efforts in the Little Rock School District. Research from the University of Arkansas in 2009 showed that both Caucasian and minority students transfer to equally integrated charter schools.
- The research showed that charter schools are not inhibiting the LRSD from becoming more integrated; instead, they may be actively contributing to the integration efforts of the district.
- Charter schools are attracting a majority of minority and low-income students from the LRSD. For the 2010 school year, 28% of the transfers were Caucasian, 60% were African-American, and 12% were other minority. Of those, 52% qualified for free or reduced lunches.
- More minority transfers from the LRSD means that the school district as a whole is achieving a more favorable racial balance, instead of becoming more segregated.
