Chartering the Way to a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE): The Challenges for Charter Schools to Provide FAPE

Charter schools are publicly funded schools that are an integral part of the school choice movement, following a market-model of education based on autonomy, competition, and choice. However, charter schools are also mandated to adhere to all laws and regulations in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) when educating students with disabilities. The education of students with disabilities within the charter school environment can result in policy tensions. This paper will examine the salient issues surrounding special education as it pertains to the state, authorizer, and operator in the areas of transparency, processes, and outcomes. Charter schools have become an integral part of the American educational landscape. Rhim and McLaughlin (2007) describe charter schools as publicly funded autonomous schools that operate under a contract that specifies the characteristics of the education program or “mission.” According to Ravitch (2010), there were approximately 4,600 charter schools serving 1.4 million students in 40 states and in the District of Columbia in 2010. Charter schools serve as the remedy to improve educational achievement through the deregulation of public education by affording charter schools with more flexibility pertaining to curriculum, class size, and pedagogy, along with a number of additional operational factors. Charter schools are part of the market-driven school choice movement where competition and choice will foster improved academic achievement (McLaughlin and Rhim 2007). However, the idea and inception of charter schools did not stem from a market-driven approach to education. According to Ravitch (2010), the original concept of “charter schools” stems from a paper by Ray Budde entitled “Education by Charter: Restructuring School Districts” published in 1988. Budde proposed a school system that would involve teams of teachers applying for charters to run schools within a school district with a specific set of goals, a set term, and would be evaluated on those goals accordingly. According to Kahlenber (2008), in March of 1988 in an address to the National Press Club in Washington D.C., Albert Shanker, the President of the United Federation of Teachers, articulated his version of charter schools, which would be publicly funded institutions whereby teachers and parents would submit researchedbased proposals to innovatively educate students who were struggling within the traditional educational environment (Ravitch 2010). However, Shanker withdrew his support for charter schools in 1993 because his idea of schools with more flexibility and autonomy was being adopted by businesses looking to expand into the “education industry,” an industry that was 1 Seltzer: The Challenges for Charter Schools to Provide FAPE