A major study by the University of California, Los Angeles finds that charter schools do not live up to the claims of proponents that charter schools will lead a transformation of US education. California has the second-largest number of charter schools following Arizona with 241 but has the largest number of students, nearly 50,000, enrolled in charter schools. The UCLA researchers spent two and one-half years studying 17 charter schools and surrounding public schools in ten California school districts. They are more likely to be held fiscally accountable.
School boards are ambivalent about their responsibilities to monitor charter schools.
Many are reluctant to become involved. Charter schools have multiple constituencies to whom they see themselves as accountable. Charter schools vary widely in their amount of operating autonomy and in the demands they make on districts. The amount of public funding that charter schools receive for operating expenses ranges widely from one district to the next and even within the same district. Private resources are usually necessary for the survival of charter schools.