North Carolina Charter Schools: Undermining Quality Education for All—the newly updated and just released report by Public Schools First NC—takes a close look at charter schools in North Carolina. The report shows how they fail to meet legislated goals and have evolved to become a separate, unequal system of public education at odds with state constitutional mandates.
North Carolina charter schools are publicly funded elementary and secondary schools operated independently by non-profit organizations, some of which partner with for-profit groups.
This report examines the three-decade North Carolina charter school experiment. It explores the original justifications for charter schools; addresses the pedagogical and operational differences among charter schools, including profiteering by charter management companies; considers the mechanisms through which charter schools evade accountability measures that apply to public schools; and addresses mixed student academic outcomes.
The report identifies and analyzes four problematic features of charter schools that should trouble taxpayers, parents, and lawmakers: racial segregation, exclusionary student discipline, the rate of school closures, and financial mismanagement. Despite the public funding for and growth of charter schools, heightened scrutiny by taxpayers and policymakers is warranted.
The 2025-26 school year began with over 210 operating charter schools, but charter sector turmoil was highlighted as one Guilford County charter school closed within months of opening, leaving parents scrambling to find a new school for their children. In the 2024-25 school year, charter schools received well over $1.18 billion in taxpayer money, even as public-school districts remain grossly underfunded. As a result, North Carolina now has two primary systems of elementary and secondary public schools – a system of charter schools and a system of traditional school systems – despite the state constitutional requirement that the General Assembly provide a “uniform system of free public schools.” Moreover, the growth of taxpayer-funded private school tuition vouchers adds a third system of state-funded education.
Background: Charter schools arrived in North Carolina through the “Charter Schools Act of 1996.” Since then, the stated purposes of charter schools – according to Chapter 115C, Article 14A of the North Carolina General Statutes – have been to:
- improve student learning;
- increase learning opportunities for all students, with special emphasis on expanded learning experiences for students who are identified as at risk of academic failure or academically gifted;
- encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods;
- create new professional opportunities for teachers, including the opportunities to be responsible for the learning program at the school site; and
- provide parents and students with expanded choices in the types of educational opportunities that are available within the public school system.
Lawmakers exempted charter schools from various statutes and rules and rules applicable to school districts. These exemptions enable charter schools to filter out certain students, to relax staffing expectations, and to minimize accountability. For example, charter schools are not required to provide transportation or free and reduced-priced meals for students. Charter schools need not follow the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. They can set their own school calendars. They can have whatever class sizes they want. Unlike their public-school counterparts, charter school educators have no specific professional development requirements. They are not required to have governance by citizen-elected school boards. Finally, they are not bound by competitive bidding requirements for contracted services.
The report includes many examples of how charter schools have segregated our public school systems, creating schools with high concentrations of White students as well as schools with high concentrations of Black students.
For example in 2025-25, Bear Grass Charter in Martin County had 89.3% White students while the closest traditional public school had 24.4% White students and the county average was 31.3% White students.
In contrast, A.C.E. Academy in Cabarrus County had 77.0% Black students while the closest traditional elementary school had 16.5% Black students and the county average was 22.9% Black students.
Charter schools also drive segregation by family income. Raleigh Charter had just 6.4% of its students eligible for free/reduced price lunch while its closest neighbor had 27.4% and Wake County had 35.6%.
The number of North Carolina charter schools is likely to grow rapidly in the next few years aided by a $53 million grant from the US Department of Education. State lawmakers should evaluate and revise policy to ensure that the schools live up to their promise to improve options for students instead of undermining quality education for all.
