The post-pandemic era has seen public schools in crisis. But charter schools—which, despite not being residentially assigned, are still public schools—have been an exception. This National Charter Schools Week, we should celebrate these bright spots in public education, and learn from them to understand what it is about their model that works and how we can replicate it in struggling public schools around the country.
A recent working paper from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University offers some clues. Analyzing statewide longitudinal student-level data from Indiana, the study finds that charter school students significantly outperformed traditional public school peers in the post-pandemic recovery years (2021–22 through 2023–24). Students attending charter schools showed moderate to substantial gains in both math and English/language arts, with the strongest improvements seen among black, Hispanic, economically disadvantaged, and lower-performing students.
Notably, Indiana charters largely recovered to pre-pandemic achievement levels by 2024, while traditional public schools did not. The analysis found no meaningful differences in chronic absenteeism between students in charter schools versus those in traditional public schools.
The authors point out that charter schools actually often lack the administrative infrastructure that traditional public schools have, which might be seen as a downside: after all, that infrastructure helps traditional public schools apply for federal and state funds. But this can actually lead to charter schools having the “advantage of greater autonomy to adapt quickly to changing modalities and pivot to new practices to address learning loss,” according to the report.
While the authors noted that further research is needed to understand why exactly charter schools have done so much better than traditional public schools post-COVID, the fact that charter schools are subject to fewer regulations than traditional public schools might very well be why they are performing better, especially in the 2020s.
Indeed, the post-COVID era has largely been defined by an ever-shifting landscape in education. Learning loss is certainly part of it, but so is the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the general breakdown of civil society and norms, including the progressive extremism of the Biden administration in education policy (e.g., mandating boys be able to play in girls’ sports) followed by the rollback of said extremism under the second Trump administration, creating whiplash for schools.
Traditional public schools might have difficulty responding to the sheer amount of change in civic life and educational norms in part because their hands are tied by federal, state, local, and district-level bureaucracies that are slow to respond. Because charter schools operate under an independent charter, they have fewer regulations weighing them down.
In some ways, this echoes the best of capitalism: when people are allowed to innovate their way out of a crisis and are given the resources to do so, they do. Traditional public schools and charter schools both have the resources—namely, public funding—but only the latter have the freedom to respond to the particular needs of their particular students as they see fit.
Charter schools around the country have put this autonomy to creative use in numerous concrete ways since the pandemic. Many have embraced classical education models that emphasize Western civilization, the great books, Latin, logic, rhetoric, and instruction in founding principles and American history. Networks like Great Hearts Academies (operating dozens of campuses in states such as Arizona and Texas) and Hillsdale College-affiliated charters have expanded rapidly, focusing on moral character development, virtue formation, and rigorous liberal arts curricula that prioritize knowledge, discipline, and civic responsibility over fads. These schools often incorporate strict behavior standards, teacher-led instruction, and high academic expectations that restore order and excellence in the classroom.
Relative to the traditional public schools in the same area, inner-city charter schools have been effective at delivering results for disadvantaged students. In New York City, Success Academy operates dozens of schools primarily serving black and Hispanic students from low-income families. Through its emphasis on rigorous academics, high behavioral expectations, teacher-led instruction, and a no-excuses culture of excellence, Success Academy has consistently ranked among the top-performing school systems in New York state, with proficiency rates far exceeding those of traditional New York City public schools serving similar students.
Ultimately, the success of charter schools proves what we already know more generally: more competition produces better results, not only in the private sector, but in education, too. Instead of fighting against this reality, we can reduce bureaucracy in traditional public schools to try and replicate some of the successes of charter schools, while also continuing to support school choice so that the continued pressure of competition holds all schools accountable.
