MYTH: Charter schools drain money from public schools and should not be expanded during tight economic times.

REALITY: When public charter schools are funded, no public education money is lost, because the money stays with the student. When students transfer to charters, the traditional school still gets 99% of its prior year actual Average Daily Attendance (ADA), state funding based on student attendance—a safety net while making adjustments. Charters receive ADA, but do not receive any local funds that traditional schools receive, like facility, emergency, and supplemental levies.

MYTH: Charter schools just accept “cream of the crop” students.

REALITY: Charters are open to all students and are neither private nor exclusive. When enrollment requests exceed capacity, charters hold a public lottery to determine who will attend. The same laws governing traditional public schools govern charters. Like traditional public schools, charters must provide in-school special education services.

MYTH: Charter schools are not held accountable for their performance.

REALITY: Charters are given wide latitude to create their own curriculum and instructional models, but are held to the same accountability standards as traditional schools. Charters go through a stringent approval process, undergo annual audits, and those that don’t succeed don’t survive.

MYTH: Charter schools are an experiment.

REALITY: If charters are an experiment, then the experiment is working, because charters continue to outperform their traditional counterparts. Last year, 78.6% of charters met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), compared to 54.8% of non-charter schools. Charters have also received regional and national recognition. Coeur d’Alene Charter, for example, was the only Idaho high school to make US News and World Report’s “Top 100 America’s Best High Schools” list in 2009.

For an alphabetic listing of Idaho Charter Schools, click here: http://www.chartercommission.id.gov/documents/Data_Sheets_Alph.pdf

Or click here for an online directory of all public K-12 schools in Idaho.

The Idaho Charter School Commission is the state-run organization for charter school alternative authorization. On the commission’s web site, you will find answers to frequently asked questions and information about how charters are started and authorized in Idaho.

Another source of facts and news about school choice in Idaho is the State Department of Education’s web site page on School Choice. There, you will find information for parents, charter school developers, and charter school leaders. The site also contains information about the laws governing charter schools in Idaho, research, reports, national resources, and dissemination grants that help traditional and charter schools share and promote best practices.