In other states, this competition for funds is having a positive, not negative, effect on school districts. Districts that are losing large numbers of students to charter schools often become more responsive to parents and community needs and institute new, specialized programs and improvement initiatives to attract families back to their schools. Charter schools cater to a specialized population and thus are elitist and inequitable. Nationally, statistics have shown that charter schools are serving a population very much like the groups currently served by traditional public schools. However, in many cases charter schools are actually serving a greater number of students who are often under-served in the American public school system.
Charter schools threaten teachers unions.
Teachers don't lose the right to union representation. Teachers in charter schools can unionize, but their bargaining unit would be separate from that of the district. In other words, if the teachers in a charter school chose to unionize, they would not be subject to their local district's union contract. Furthermore, since autonomous charter schools often represent a small, unified group of teachers and parents, charter school proponents argue that teachers would not need union protection. This is the final installment of a four-year study by Research, Policy, and Practice International, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.