A new report from the Fordham Institute examines the 125 largest districts in the nation to gauge how much competition they face from charter and private schools, and considers the trends over the last ten years. The authors, David Griffith and Jeanette Luna, (regard this competition as beneficial for all students because a “large and ever-growing research” bank demonstrates that competition improves achievement in traditional public schools. After all, “monopolies, in the view of many informed observers, are by their nature indifferent to the needs of those they are meant to serve.”  

In addition, the report calculates what percentage of students who are Black, White, Hispanic, and Asian avail themselves of the opportunity to attend a non-traditional school.

One of the districts studied—the only one in New Jersey large enough to make the cut— is Newark.

Fordham found that Newark Public Schools District is #10 out of the 125 largest U.S. districts for having the most competition from non-district alternatives. Newark’s high rank is because in most large districts there is little competition and, also, public charter schools are extremely popular in NJ’s largest district. According to calculations, 42% of Newark students attend non-district schools. The only districts with a higher percentage are New Orleans, San Antonio, D.C., Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and St. Paul. East Baton Rouge is tied with Newark for 10th place.

Newark is in 2nd place for the biggest increase in non-district enrollment over the last ten years. With a 19% increase, Newark is tied with Indianapolis. (Number 1, of course, is New Orleans; after Hurricane Katrina, the city moved to an all-charter system.)

In Newark, the largest subgroup that has moved to non-district schools is Black students, who comprise over 50% of the trend line. The second largest group is Hispanic students, at about 25%. Currently 44% of non-white Newark students are enrolled in non-district schools. Almost all of these students moved to the public charter sector. Private school enrollment has actually decreased over the last 10 years, 

Here are  Fordham’s takeaways: 

How has competition for students in different racial/ethnic groups evolved in your school district?

1. The death of traditional public schools has been greatly exaggerated.

Per Finding 1, the typical American student still attends a school that is administered by his or her local school district. And because the typical school district is only exposed to modest levels of competition, that school still has little incentive to change its behavior if that student is ill-served.

2. Most communities would benefit from the creation of more and/or more affordable non-district alternatives, especially for traditionally disadvantaged groups.

Per Finding 2, while the gap between White and non-White students’ access to non-district schooling has narrowed, it has not disappeared in most large districts. And despite the evidence that traditionally disadvantaged groups are particularly likely to benefit from non-district alternatives, the approach many places take to K–12 education policy is still reminiscent of that old and morally dubious adage: “Choice for me, but not for thee.”

3. Progress is possible.

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is little to cheer when it comes to public education. Yet for advocates of equal opportunity and better schooling, the decade just before the pandemic was a time of real progress, at least when it came to the expansion of choice and competition in the communities served by our country’s largest school systems.

Let’s get back to that.