Louisiana is among 14 states that have strengthened their public charter school oversight laws, regulations and policies over the past year, and the Bayou State is ranked No. 10 nationally for its charter school policies in the latest annual report from the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.
NACSA ranks states in eight categories, with a total score of 33 points possible. Louisiana was awarded 24 points this year, up from 18 last year. Louisiana is tied with Oklahoma for the No. 10 ranking.
“The Recovery School District had already developed and employed several model practices, which were subsequently enacted into policy,” the report says of Louisiana’s improvement in the rankings this year.
To improve its score going forward, NACSA recommends Louisiana charter school authorizers to include school performance information in their annual reports, extend the default closure policy used by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to all authorizers and charter schools, and continue creating and implementing policies to address the unique challenges of New Orleans’ all-charter district.
Louisiana has 11 charter school authorizers, or legal entities that decide who can start a new charter, set expectations and oversee school performance, as well as decide which schools should be closed. Along with BESE, authorizers include school districts in East Baton Rouge, Avoyelles, Calcasieu, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafourche, Morehouse, Orleans and Union parishes. Monroe City Schools is also an authorizer.
The report shows slightly more than 69,000 students in Louisiana—or one in 10 students—attend one of the state’s 129 charter schools. Of all the charter schools operating in the state, 73% are authorized by BESE.
“This publication analyzes the current policy reality of each chartering state, not authorizers’ day-to-day practices,” the report notes. “It isn’t designed to tell the whole story of a state charter school law or the whole story of a state’s charter school sector.”
Indiana and Nevada are tied at No. 1 in this year’s ranking—both of which scored a perfect 33—while Kansas is ranked last among the 42 states included in the report. See the complete report, or view an overview of Louisiana’s ranking.
