These figures are the same as in 1996-97. About 16 percent of charter schools serve a higher percentage of students of color than their surrounding districts. The estimated percentage of LEP students in charter schools is 10.1 percent, which is a slight drop from the 12.7 percent reported for 1996-97. The comparable figure for all public schools in the 23 charter states and the District of Columbia is approximately 10.7 percent. Without regard to differences across states, the reported percentage of students with disabilities at charter schools is 8 percent, which is somewhat less than the 11 percent for all public schools in these states.
Most charter schools aim to realize an alternative vision of schooling.
Nearly seven of ten newly created charter schools seek to realize an alternative vision of schooling, and an additional two of ten were founded especially to serve a special target population of students. Four of ten public schools report that they converted to charter status in order to gain autonomy from district and state regulations. Many private schools that converted to charter status sought public funds so that they could stabilize their finances and attract students. Most charter schools continue to cite resource limitations as a serious implementation difficulty. Newly created charter schools were more likely to cite resource limitations as a major difficulty than pre-existing charter schools.