Shawgi Tell, author of Charter School Report Card, looks at further evidence that the charter school movement has run into some trouble.
While many charter schools failed, closed, and abandoned thousands of people two to three decades ago, in recent years it has become a full time job to report on the number of old and new charter schools failing, closing, and leaving many out in the cold. The rate and tempo of non-profit and for-profit charter school failures and closures has now conditioned researchers, writers, journalists, and commentators to not let their guard down for a second because the next, typically sudden and abrupt, charter school failure and closure is right around the corner. A high level of predictability for failure and closure has now been solidified. Uncertainty and bedlam have increased qualitatively and quantitatively in the charter school sector.
In such a frenzied context, charter school disinformation, propaganda, and gas-lighting lose much of their power. Top-down neoliberal narratives collide more severely with harsh realities and hold less sway. Social consciousness of what is really happening begins to gradually increase.
The National Center for Charter School Accountability (NCCSA) states that, “Today, the charter sector stands at a reckoning point. Growth has slowed. For-profit models are expanding. The push to create religious charter schools has fractured the movement from within. Meanwhile, charters are now competing not just with public schools and each other, but with a growing network of voucher-funded private schools and publicly subsidized home-schools.”
The NCCSA also reminds us that, “In the first half of 2025, 50 charter schools announced plans to shut down. Some would close immediately, while others would remain open through the end of the school year.”
In a separate, more recent report, the same organization also reminds us that,” Scandals and closures have tarnished the charter brand resulting in mounting public disillusionment with charter schools — even among progressive policymakers who once embraced the idea. The 2025 Kappan poll illustrates this dramatic shift: in 2013, nearly seven in ten Americans (68%) supported charter and lab schools. By 2025, support had plummeted to just 46% — a22-point drop during a period when general support for school choice has reached record highs.” While this is a big drop, it is not unreasonable to assume that a more investigative survey would show even lower support for charter schools. Experience shows that when open, calm, honest, and deep discussion takes place with people, especially on a one-on-one basis, many people, including charter school employees, operators, and supporters, admit that charter schools have 50 problems and that society does not need to privatize schools because society can actually do much better. People crave coherence and analysis, and are eager to overcome disinformation and propaganda.
A recent alarming example of yet another charter school to close suddenly and abruptly, leaving everyone shocked and appalled again, comes from Orlando, Florida which already has a high rate of charter school failures and closures.
The title of the January 2, 2026 article says it all: “Families scramble to find new schools after Orlando charter school’s abrupt closure.” “Unsustainable financial challenges” was the main reason cited for the closure of Legends Academy Charter School. This is actually a common problem in the charter school sector which receives billions of dollars in public funds every year from the federal government and state governments, not to mention hundreds of millions of dollars a year from “philanthrocapitalists” and other private funders. Charter School Scandals is a website that regularly documents embezzlement, racketeering, and a range of other crimes, scandals, and controversies in the crisis-ridden charter school sector.