Why haven't charter schools taken greater hold in suburban areas in most states? In a new Fordham Foundation report, Pushpam Jain of the University of Maine takes a close look at three states with relatively high proportions of charter schools in the suburbs to see how they managed to introduce charter schools, and then compares them to one state (Illinois) with only a few suburban charters to see what is blocking the spread of charters there. His conclusion: if a state sets up a system for authorizing charter schools where the only authorizing body doesn't want charter schools, there won't be many charter schools! But when state policymakers want charter schools, and when the state retains a role in the charter approval process-either as primary authorizer or as appellate authority-there are likely to be more charter schools in suburbs. The report, The Approval Barrier to Suburban Charter Schools, was released today by the Fordham Foundation and is available at www.edexcellence.net.
