Charter school
A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autonomy for accountability, that it is freed from the rules but accountable for results.
Public vs. private school
Charter schools are publicly funded schools that operate independently from their local district. Charter schools are often operated and maintained by a charter management organization. CMOs are typically non-profit organizations and provide centralized services for a group of charter schools. There are some for-profit education management organizations. Charter schools are held accountable by their authorizer. There is debate on whether charter schools should be described as private schools or state schools. Advocates of the charter model argue that they are public schools because they are open to all students and do not charge for tuition. Critics of charter schools assert that charter schools' private operation with a lack of public accountability makes them more like private institutions subsidized by the public.Performance
There is dispute on whether charter schools are more effective than public schools. Several studies find that charter school students are generally more advanced in their education compared to their public school counterparts, and that disadvantaged children tend to perform better. For example, charter school students gain 16 days' learning in reading and six in math over their traditional public school peers, reversing previous trends where public school students performed equally or slightly better.By country
Australia
All Australian private schools have received some federal government funding since the 1970s. Since then they have educated approximately 30% of high school students. None of them are charter schools, as all charge tuition fees.Since 2009, the Government of Western Australia has been trialling the Independent Public School Initiative. These public schools have greater autonomy and could be regarded as akin to 'charter' schools.
Bulgaria
The first charter school in Bulgaria, 151 General Education School with Interest-Based Profiles, was established in 1990 in Sofia, Bulgaria.Canada
The Canadian province of Alberta enacted legislation in 1994 allowing charter schools. The first charter schools under the new legislation were established in 1995: New Horizons Charter School, Suzuki Charter School, and the Centre for Academic and Personal Excellence., Alberta remains the only Canadian province that has enabled charter schools.There are 23 charter school campuses operated by 13 Alberta charter schools. The number of charter schools was limited to a maximum of 15, but the Provincial government eliminated this cap effective September 2020.
Catalonia
In Catalonia charter schools are called escola concertada. They are educational centers for compulsory education that receive government funding and follow the official curriculum, but are privately owned. This model was established following the approval of the Organic Law on the Right to Education approved by the Spanish Parliament in 1985, which aimed to ensure universal access to compulsory education, at a time when the public administration did not have enough of its own schools to meet educational demand, especially in rapidly growing neighborhoods. It is estimated that around 27% of students in Catalonia are enrolled in a charter school. Data for the 2024-2025 academic year indicate an approximate total of 1,262,492 students in the general system, with 901,267 in public schools, 339,423 in charter schools and 21,802 in private schools, although these figures are aggregated and not broken down by compulsory phase. According to the educational think-tank Fundació Bofill, Catalonia is among the 8 OECD countries with the greatest weight of charter-school education.Chile
has a very long history of private subsidized schooling, akin to charter schooling in the United States. Before the 1980s, most private subsidized schools were religious and owned by churches or other private parties, but they received support from the central government. In the 1980s, the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet promoted neoliberal reforms in the country. In 1981 a competitive voucher system in education was adopted. These vouchers could be used in public schools or private subsidized schools. After this reform, the share of private subsidized schools, many of them secular, grew from 18.5% of schools in 1980 to 32.7% of schools in 2001. As of 2012, nearly 60% of Chilean students study in charter schools.Denmark
Free primary schools have long existed in Denmark, often with roots in Grundtvig's folk high school movement. Many other independent schools have a religious focus or cater for the German-speaking minority in Schleswig. Danish private schools have often been set up on the initiative of a group of parents. Around 75% of pupils' costs are covered by the public purse, with the remainder paid by parents. A supervisor, appointed by the parents, checks that teaching of core subjects meets the standards of the elementary school. Some 90 000 pupils attend Danish private schools. Profits in Danish private schools stay in the business.England and Wales
The United Kingdom established grant-maintained schools in England and Wales in 1988. They allowed individual schools that were independent of the local school authority. When they were abolished in 1998, most turned into foundation schools, which are really under their local district authority but still have a high degree of autonomy.Prior to the 2010 general election, there were about 200 academies in England.
Finland
In 2007, there were 75 private general education schools in Finland. Of these, 47 were members of the Association of Private Schools. In addition to special education schools, 13% of the pupils in its member schools were in adult secondary schools, 8% in language schools, 8% in special education schools and 5% in Christian schools. According to the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation, twenty of the private schools were Christian in 2011.Private schools started to be established in Finland in the mid-19th century, reaching a peak of 346 schools between 1965 and 1966, before their number started to decline in the late 1960s and 1970s due to municipalisations, nationalisations and closures. More than 80% of Finnish upper secondary schools were originally founded and run by a private association or limited company. Private primary schools need a licence from the Government and other educational institutions from the Ministry of Education to operate. Most private schools follow the national curriculum. Exceptions to this are international and foreign language schools. Tuition fees may not be charged in Finnish private schools, but the schools are financed by per pupil grants from the state and municipalities. The operator of a private school must be a non-profit-making organisation.
Germany
The operation of private preschools, primary and secondary schools is permitted in accordance with Art. 7 of the Grundgesetz. They are regulated by the laws applying the federal state in which they are based and must not be "inferior to the state schools in terms of their educational aims, their facilities nor the professional training of their teaching staff". Furthermore "segregation of pupils according to the means of their parents" may not be encouraged. In return all private schools are supported financially by government bodies, comparable with charter schools. The amount of control over school organization, curriculum etc. by the state differs from state to state and from school to school. Average financial support given by government bodies was 85% of total costs in 2009.Hong Kong
Some private schools in Hong Kong receive government subsidy under the Direct Subsidy Scheme. DSS schools are free to design their curriculum, select their own students, and charge for tuition. A number of DSS schools were formerly state schools prior to joining the scheme.Ireland
were set up mostly in the 1700s by the Church of Ireland to educate the poor. They were state or charity sponsored, but run by the church. The model to copy was Kilkenny College, but critics like Bernard Mandeville felt that educating too many poor children would lead them to have unrealistic expectations. Notable examples are the Collegiate School Celbridge, Midleton College, Wilson's Hospital School and The King's Hospital.Netherlands
New Zealand
Charter schools in New Zealand, labelled as Partnership schools | kura hourua, were allowed for after an agreement between the National Party and the ACT Party following the 2011 general election. The controversial legislation passed with a five-vote majority. A small number of charter schools started in 2013 and 2014. All cater for students who have struggled in the normal state school system. Most of the students have issues with drugs, alcohol, poor attendance and achievement. Most of the students are Maori or Pacific Islander. One of the schools is set up as a military academy. One of the schools ran into major difficulties within weeks of starting. It is now being run by an executive manager from Child, Youth and Family, a government social welfare organization, together with a commissioner appointed by the Ministry of Education. 36 organizations have applied to start charter schools.Norway
As in Sweden, the publicly funded but privately run charter schools in Norway are named friskoler and was formally instituted in 2003, but dismissed in 2007. Private schools have since medieval times been a part of the education system, and is today consisting of 63 Montessori and 32 Steiner charter schools, some religious schools and 11 non-governmental funded schools like the Oslo International School, the German School Max Tau and the French School Lycée Français, a total of 195 schools.All charter schools can have a list of admission priorities, but only the non-governmental funded schools are allowed to select their students and to make a profit. The charter schools cannot have entrance exams, and supplemental fees are very restricted. In 2013, a total of 19,105 children were enrolled in privately run schools.