By Josh Cunningham

John Oliver's segment on charter schools during the Aug. 22 edition of "Last Week With John Oliver" has generated a lot of attention in the education policy world.

In the episode, he focuses on some undeniably bad actors within the Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania education systems.

The show points to instances of poor charter school application and authorization processes, leading to untimely school closures, conflicts of interest and embezzlement of taxpayer funds. The show leaves viewers with a sense that charter schools uniquely cannot be trusted with taxpayer funds and that they are not equipped to provide a high quality education.

At NCSL, we play the important role of looking at analyses such as John Oliver’s charter school piece and applying a bipartisan lens to it. We help legislators and legislative staff get to the bottom of issues when most policy research and analysis is designed to push a particular idea or perspective.

The concerns Oliver raises have been a common refrain from even the most ardent charter school advocates for over a decade.

Oliver argues there needs to be more transparency in the operation of charter schools—particularly those that contract with for-profit management companies. Many also believe state policies do not go far enough to hold poor performing charters accountable and that the charter school application process is easily manipulated to allow operators to game the system for their own personal gain.

The rebuttal coming from the charter school community in response to the show is also very familiar. They claim he “cherry-picked” extreme examples of charter school policy gone awry, that not all charter school operators or authorizers are guilty of these wrongdoings, and that the charter school community as a whole actively works to eliminate these bad actors from the charter school sector.

As is often the case in complex policy matters, both sides are correct but neither provides the full picture. There are numerous examples of poor performing charter schools that have remained open despite showing continued low academic achievement. There are also countless charter schools that are among the highest performing public schools in their state and in the country.

As is the case with most policy areas, it is impossible to foresee every consequence or loophole in school choice policy until it is implemented. Public policy is by nature a reactive process influenced by events that have already occurred.

Oliver’s episode brings to light challenges with charter schools that states around the country have addressed in the past and continue seeking solutions to. One example, which Oliver briefly mentions but does not elaborate on, was a key piece of legislation in one of the states highlighted on his show.

In 2015, Ohio passed House Bill 2, a major overhaul of the state’s charter school law specifically aimed at strengthening charter school accountability and oversight. The legislation, nicely summarized here, received strong bipartisan support in a state where both the legislature and governor’s office are controlled by Republicans.

While it is too soon to know if the legislation will prevent the examples highlighted by Oliver, it is a recognition from even the biggest charter school supporters that the previous law was imperfect and needed to be adjusted.

Other states are also working hard at improving their charter school authorization and accountability process. Indiana requires authorizers to conduct thorough evaluations of charter applicants including in-person meetings to verify they are qualified to operate a school. Indiana is also one of many states requiring charter school contracts to include specific, measurable achievement goals that the school must achieve if it wishes to remain open.

Nearly one-third of all states including California, Florida, Louisiana and Ohio have embraced the idea of automatic closure provisions in their charter school law that force authorizers to close failing charter schools.

States are moving in the direction of stronger charter authorizer accountability, including measuring authorizer performance based on its entire portfolio of charter schools and imposing penalties on authorizers that fail to provide proper oversight to their schools. 

The overwhelming majority of charter school operators are committed to providing the best learning experience possible for their students. NCSL has visited some of these schools as part of our professional development of state legislators. Not all charter schools are successful in their efforts, but that is a reality shared by the public education system as a whole.

Josh Cunningham is a senior education policy specialist in NCSL's education program.

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