Michigan Has One of the Highest Percentages of Students Enrolled in Charter Schools in the Nation

According to statistics gathered from national data, Michigan has the 4th highest percentage of K-12 students enrolled in public charter schools when compared to the 49 other states.

Using statewide K-12 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the state wide charter school enrollments from the Center for Education Reform, the data shows that approximately 2.9% of students nation-wide are enrolled in public charter schools. In Michigan, nearly double that percentage at 5.6% are students who attend public school academies (i.e., charter schools.)

Several states are not listed as having charter school enrollments. These include, among others: Alabama, Kentucky, Maine,Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Washington states.

The five states with the highest percentage of K-12 enrollments in public charters:

11.4% - Arizona
7.2% - Delaware
7.1% - Colorado
5.6% - Michigan
5.2% - Ohio

The five states which allow for charter schools and which have the lowest percentage of their total students enrolled in charters are:

0.02% - Virginia (only 275 students state-wide)
0.08% - Mississippi (367 students state-wide)
0.27% - Tennessee
0.29% - Wyoming
0.31% - Iowa

Other states in the Great Lakes region and their charter school enrollments:

5.0% - Wisconsin
3.4% - Minnesota
3.3% - Pennsylvania
1.4% - Illinois
1.2% - Indiana

The data on K-12 enrollments from the NCES is from 2006-2007 and is located at:

nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d08/tables/dt08_034.asp

The data on enrollments for charter schools is from the Center for Education Reform a 501(c)(3) organization which appears to advocate for charter schools. It appears to be 2008-2009 data, so that the percentages may be off slightly. The specific data that I used from that source is located at:

www.edreform.com/_upload/CER_charter_numbers.pdf

(Note: I have used the title "charter school" instead of the Michigan title "public school academy." The Center for Education Reform chose to use that term in its study. In addition, the chart above was located from a link from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.)