Part I: Decline, the first installment of a three-part report, Charter School Reckoning, presents sobering findings on the stagnation, retrenchment, and accelerating closures plaguing the charter school sector as it enters its fourth decade.
The report, published by the National Center for Charter School Accountability, documents that in the first half of 2025 alone, 50 charter schools announced closures, many without warning, adding to the 218 charter schools that closed or never opened between 2022 and 2024. Meanwhile, new school openings have slowed to a crawl, with only 11 more charter schools opening nationwide during the 2023–24 school year — a stark contrast to the hundreds added annually during the Obama-era Race to the Top initiative.
Despite the decline, federal funding for charter schools has increased to $500 million annually, much of which is awarded to schools that later fail, misuse funds, or never open at all. Nearly half of the 50 schools that closed in 2025 had received a combined $102 million from the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP).
The report also conducts an in-depth analysis using NCES data on the expansion of the low-quality, scandal-ridden mega-charter sector and breaks the myth of the “one million student waiting list.”
“For-profit interests and lax oversight have hijacked the original promise of charter schools,” said Diane Ravitch, President of the Network for Public Education. “It’s time to stop pouring public money into a broken experiment and reinvest in accountable, transparent, and equitable public schools.”
Part II of the report, Disillusionment, will be released in the fall of 2025.
To read Part 1, Decline, click the image below.
