When Charter School Authorities And Liberal Institutions Abandon People

by Shawgi Tell / February 5th, 2026

Sadly, the tragic journey of Buffalo’s first charter school, the King Center Charter School (KCCS), is not an isolated one. Nationwide, far too many charter schools—old and new—experience death by a thousand cuts, usually at the hands of their private operators, charter school authorizers, and the institutions that are supposed to protect them.

Buffalo’s King Center Charter School first opened in 2000, but like many deregulated charter schools it has been plagued by numerous problems which have steadily worsened over time.

Spectrum News reported on January 29, 2026 that the privately-operated charter school, “is at the center of a widening dispute that advocates argue spans a series of issues, including charter school governance.” Charter schools, it should be recalled, are governed by unelected private persons.

For starters, “in 2019, academic performance started to slip, an issue which cascaded into a vote of ‘no confidence’ by the staff in May 2024.” Less than five months later the school’s teachers voted to unionize—something charter school operators vehemently oppose, which is why about 90% of the nation’s charter schools are not unionized.

Spectrum News continues: “Then, after the following school year, the board opted not to renew the administration’s contracts. Since then, violence at the school has increased, enrollment has fallen, and about 60% of teachers have quit.” Declining enrollment and high teacher turnover rates are common in charter schools from coast to coast, pointing to instability, poor conditions, and weak management.

These terrible developments prompted a broad and large range of individuals connected to the school and from the wider community to meet regularly in order to take matters into their own hands so as to turn things around. But this drive only further revealed the irrelevance and inefficacy of existing arrangements and institutions to solve problems, leaving many feeling frustrated.

The diverse group attempted to secure help from the school’s authorizer, SUNY Charter Schools Institute (SUNY CSI), which is comprised of unelected pro-privatization persons. Not surprisingly, CSI “has failed to follow up or meaningfully investigate claims or meet with affected stakeholders despite repeated outreach.”

Many other entities have dismissed the legitimate concerns of the group as well. Keith Frome, a former trustee of the [charter] school as well as a former executive director and a member of the group trying to save the school, said the group has tried everything to save the schools: “They’ve reached out to the SUNY trustees. They’ve reached out to the Charter Schools Institute. They’ve reached out to the Buffalo Common Council…. They’ve reached out to the local news to try to get this story front and center and ask the question, is there a mechanism for when a school is in such a dramatic decline to intervene before it crashes and burns?”

Even Joe Belluck, an attorney who chairs the unelected pro-privatization CSI admits that, “this group has done everything it can.” Still, both Belluck and the CSI refuse to lift a finger to help the school.

Naturally, “This isn’t the first Buffalo charter school to face problems. Over the last several years, two SUNY-authorized charter schools in Buffalo — Buffalo Collegiate Charter School and Buffalo Creek Charter School — have closed after similar problems. In the case of Buffalo Creek, the school closed mid–school year, which disrupts families and forces the public schools to absorb students on short notice.”

Instability and chaos have been the norm in the crisis-ridden charter school sector for decades, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of thousands of people. Many fear the writing is on the wall for the King Center Charter School. Like so many privately-operated charter schools, there is a good chance that the school will soon fail and close. So much for “free market” education which leaves everything to chance and forces everyone to fend for themselves.

A key takeaway from all this misfortune is that charter school authorities and liberal institutions of governance are defunct, incapable of representing and affirming people’s rights. The social contract that came into being decades ago lies in tatters today, unable to respond to modern demands. Privatization through decades of state restructuring has deprived people of their wealth, voice, and authority. It has marginalized them and violated their rights and dignity.

How to reverse this infamy is the call of the times. How can people retain the initiative and become effective in these authoritarian times where the rich and their representatives block progress? What is needed to prioritize and guarantee people’s demands? The choices, outlook, and agendas offered by the establishment offer no real solutions, just more antisocial wrecking. There must be sustained organized discussion of new ways to overcome the old arrangements negating rights so that the people themselves become the decision-makers.

Florida’s Charter Schools Lower State’s

2024-25 Graduation Rate

by Shawgi Tell / February 4th, 2026

While corruption is endemic to the decades-old charter school sector, it is extra rampant in Florida’s charter schools. To add insult to injury, Florida also has the nation’s second highest charter school failure and closure rate. No amount of “school choice” rhetoric in Florida has improved this record. School privatization is notorious for lowering the level of education.

According to Florida Politics (Jan. 14, 2026), “Florida [high school] graduation rates are rising, but district [public] schools are driving gains far more than charters.”

When data from the Florida Department of Education is broken down by school sector we learn that, “In the 2024–25 cohort, traditional district public high schools graduated 93.8% of students within four years, while charter high schools graduated 78.4%, a gap of more than 15 percentage points.” That’s a big difference.

Even though Florida’s strong graduation rate is driven mainly by the state’s public schools, not its non-unionized charter schools, charter school proponents try to create the impression that charter schools are part and parcel of the state’s impressive high school graduation rate. But as Florida Politics reveals, “While nearly 94% of students in traditional district public schools graduate on time, more than one in five charter students do not. Graduation rate alone understates the disparity.”

Indeed, when state data is further disaggregated, we see that, “In 2024–25, 13% of charter students remained enrolled beyond four years, compared with 2.6% of students in traditional district public schools. Charter dropout rates were nearly three times higher, 4.4% versus 1.5%. These outcomes reflect thousands of students whose path to graduation is delayed or disrupted.” These are not trivial differences. To be sure, “Florida’s graduation gains are real, but they are being driven overwhelmingly by traditional district public schools.” Privately-operated charter schools are actually dragging down the state’s graduation rate. Privatization, wherever it takes place, lowers standards and quality.

Graduation data from Florida and other states once again reveals the need for investing more money in public schools while opposing school privatization, which mainly enriches a few people in the name of “innovation,” “choice,” and “serving the kids.” When private interests supersede the public interest through the continual seizure of state mechanisms, agencies, and levers, both society and education suffer. For more on the differences between public schools and charter schools, see here.

Depending on which source one uses there are currently about 3,100 public schools and roughly 700 charter schools in Florida. 

To learn more about the problems, scandals, and controversies surrounding charter schools across the country, see here

Shawgi Tell (PhD) is author of the book Charter School Report Card. He can be reached at stell5@naz.edu. Read other articles by Shawgi.

Charter schools lead to similar improvements in outcomes for students with and without disabilities

Michigan State University

Why this matters:

• For K-12 students with disabilities, ensuring they receive appropriate support for learning is critical to their success, which can raise questions about the best type of school for them, such as a traditional public school, charter school or private school.

• A new study examined students with disabilities in Michigan charter schools, finding that when students with disabilities switched from traditional public to charter schools, they perform just as well, despite spending less time in intensive programs and more time in general education classrooms.

• Academic performance and attendance improved for both students with and without disabilities after entering charter schools. This research raises important considerations about resource usage and how to best balance inclusive practices with specific targeted support for students with disabilities.

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Students with disabilities account for almost 15% of the K-12 student population in the United States. Yet they are often underrepresented in charter schools, which are publicly funded schools open to all students. While there are discussions about what type of school environment best supports these students, it is important to take a closer look at the difference in learning environments.

New research from Michigan State University found that after students with disabilities switched from a traditional public school to a charter school, their attendance and academic outcomes were comparable and, in some cases, even improved.

The study, published in the journal Education Finance and Policy, was led by Scott Imberman,  professor and chair of the Department of Economics at the College of Social Science, who is also a professor at the College of Education. The research was supported by the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice, or REACH.

“Educators and parents have worried that charter schools don’t provide students with disabilities the educational environment that they need to thrive,” Imberman said. “This work shows that in Michigan’s charters, while it does seem that charters tend to provide fewer special education services, the students with disabilities who enroll see similar improvements in achievement as other charter students.”

Background of special education programs

In 2020, around 7.5 million U.S. public education students were estimated to have a disability. Traditionally, these students were placed in separate special education classrooms. However, there has been a shift to more inclusion with almost two-thirds of students with disabilities, or SWD, spending 80% of their days in general education classrooms.

There have been concerns about the availability and quality of special education teachers in charter schools, as SWDs typically spend more time in the general classroom compared to tailored programs. While existing research has examined academic outcomes for SWDs in charters, there has been less information on how charters influence identification of these students and their learning environments.

Study method and pool

Imberman, along with Andrew Johnson of Boston University, who was a Michigan State doctoral student, examined data from Michigan students in kindergarten through eighth grade between 2013 and 2018. This sample included just over 1.7 million students who attended either a public school or charter school.

The researchers examined disability identification rates of students in both types of schools, and they also compared the time spent on specific special education learning programs and participation in two common types of support programs for SWDs:

• Resource programs involve resource rooms or separate special education classrooms where students spend a portion of their school day. While students spend most of their days in the general classrooms, they return to these rooms for tailored and specialized support.
• Cognitive programs are intended to address cognitive disabilities with more intensive programming and assistance. These students spend their entire days in these classrooms, which are more selective and costly.

Findings and further research

The researchers found that after students enrolled in charter schools, disability classifications increased.

Further, after making the switch into charter schools, students saw an increase in resource program participation of 2 percentage points and a decrease in cognitive programs by 0.4 percentage points — suggesting students’ special education services became less intensive while the share of all students spending time in special education environments increased. There was also an increase in time SWDs spent in general education classrooms.  

Another result was improvement in attendance, with absences decreasing by just over 3% and an improvement in academic outcomes, with math and reading scores improving for both SWD and general education students.

The findings were not an assessment of what resources best serve students, but rather how resources worked in the context of when students switched school type. Keeping students with disabilities more isolated from their peers could limit opportunities, but it is also important that they receive specialized care. This research calls for policy and examinations into how to achieve this balance.

“While parents of disabled students are often understandably wary of enrolling in a charter school, this research shows that some of these students can thrive in charter environments,” Imberman said. “It opens up an option to parents of students with disabilities that they may not have thought they could take advantage of.

Read on MSUToday.

By Jack Harrison

 

###

Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for 170 years. One of the world’s leading public research universities, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery to make a better, safer, healthier world for all while providing life-changing opportunities within an inclusive academic community through more than 400 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

For MSU news on the web, go to MSUToday or x.com/MSUnews.

---

Journal

Education Finance and Policy

DOI

10.1162/EDFP.a.435 

Article Title

The Effect of Charter Schools on Identification, Service Provision, and Achievement of Students with Disabilitie