Bluegrass Institute Report: Charter schools closing gaps nationwide; Kentucky falling further behind
For Immediate Release: Monday, July 24, 2023
Contact Jim Waters @ (270) 320-4376
(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – A new report from the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Kentucky’s free-market think tank, provides more evidence that students in the Bluegrass State are falling further behind their counterparts in other states that offer parents robust choice options, including public charter schools.
Kentucky is one of only five states without any charter schools – innovative public schools of choice designed by educators, parents and civic leaders and community groups that operate free of many rules and regulations, including union contracts, governing conventional public schools.
The latest available information from the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) – known as the “nation’s report card” – strengthens the evidence that in reading and math, white and Black students in public charter schools in Florida and Georgia are leaving their racial counterparts in Kentucky behind.
The report, “Kentucky Needs Charter Schools Now More Than Ever,” includes the following key findings from the NAEP results:
Black charter school students in Georgia and Florida score significantly higher than Kentucky’s Black students in fourth-grade reading and math.
Black charter school students in Georgia and Florida tied Kentucky’s white students in fourth-grade reading, in a sense erasing a white-minus-Black achievement gap!
There are even notable results when nationwide NAEP scores for charter school students are considered:
White students in charters nationwide now outperform whites in the traditional public education system in fourth-grade reading.
Whites in public charter schools across the nation outscore Kentucky's white students in fourth-grade math by a significant amount.
“Overall, these findings and more in the report support a general picture that students fortunate enough to get into public charter schools are showing improved performance compared to students who don’t get this parent choice option,” said report author and Bluegrass Institute education analyst Richard G. Innes.
“Kentucky’s educational picture will continue to decline compared to other, more forward-looking states as long as it continues to deny options for its youngest citizens,” Innes added.
For more information, please contact author Richard G. Innes at dinnes@freedomkentucky.com or Bluegrass Institute president and CEO Jim Waters at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com, 859.444.5630 ext. 102 (office) or 270.320.4376 (cell).