Business & Finance

Los Angeles district has the most students enrolled in charter schools

More than 156,000 students from the Los Angeles Unified District were enrolled in charter schools in 2015-16
Nov. 3, 2016
2 min read

The Los Angeles Unified School District continues to have more students enrolled in charter schools than any other public school system in the United States, a charter advocacy group says.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools says in a new report that 156,040 students from the Los Angeles district—about a fourth of those in the district—attended charter schools in 2015-16. That number easily outpaced the next district on the list—New York City, which had 93,610 students enrolled in charters in 2015-16.

Those two districts also topped the National Alliance's list in 2014-15. Los Angeles had 151,310 charter school students in 2014-15, and New York City had 84,310 charter students that year.

In fact, the 10 districts with the most charter school students in 2015-16 were the same ones who made the list in 20014-15, although the positions of some of the districts on the list changed.

"For 25 years, the charter school movement has been a leader in innovation, school choice, and education reform," the Alliance report says.

Large, urban districts dominate the charter list—six of the seven largest districts in the nation are among the eight districts that have the most charter students.

The Alliance found that in 2015-16, about 2.9 million students attended charter schools—about the same number as 2014-15. The 10 districts with the most charter students accounted for about 23 percent of the total—about 23 percent.

In districts where more than 10,000 students attend public schools, the Alliance identified 190 systems where at least 10 percent of students attended charters in 2015-16; 17 districts had more than 30 percent of students enrolled in charters, and three districts—Orleans Parish, Detroit and Flint, Mich.—had more than half of their students enrolled in charter schools.

About the Author

Mike Kennedy

Senior Editor

Mike Kennedy, senior editor, has written for AS&U on a wide range of educational issues since 1999.

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