Archived Information

Students' eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch under the National School Lunch program is a common measure of economic disadvantage. Over the last 2 years, the percentage of eligible charter school students has increased. In contrast to last year when charter schools served a slightly lower percentage of economically disadvantaged students than all public schools in the 27 charter states, this year charter schools served a slightly higher percentage.

• In 1998–99, charter schools served a slightly higher percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch than all public schools (in 1994–95) in the 27 charter states (39 percent versus 37 percent).

• The percentage of eligible charter students ranged from 4 percent in Alaska to 95 percent in South Carolina. This variation was much greater than in all public schools in the 27 charter states, which ranged from almost 23 percent in Connecticut to 60 percent in the District of Columbia.

• In six of the charter states--Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, and New Mexico--the percentage of eligible students was at least 10 points lower in charter schools than in all public schools.

• The percentage of eligible students was at least 10 points higher in charter than in all public schools in 11 of the charter states: Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas.

• In Michigan and California, the percentage of eligible students charter schools and all public schools enrolled was within 10 points last year. This year, charters in Michigan served at least 10 percent more and charters in California served at least 10 percent fewer eligible students than all public schools in those states. In Michigan, recently opened schools have higher percentages of eligible students and in California recently opened schools have lower percentages of eligible students, especially in newly created schools.

Estimated Number of Students Eligible for free and Reduced-Price Lunch in the 27 charter States

NOTE: These data are based on responses from 847 of the 975 open charter schools that responded to the survey. Of the 847 schools, 7 schools in 4 states (Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, and Rhode Island) are not displayed in the table because each state has 3 or fewer charter schools that provided information about this question and percentages are not meaningful. The "total" row includes data from all 27 of the charter states.

SOURCE: The numerator (eligibility counts by state was dawn from the U. S. Department of Agriculture, ood, Nutrition, and consumer Services, Program information Division, for 1994-95, the last year eligibility was published for just public schools. The denominator was drawn from the 1998 Digest of Education statistics, U. S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (1993 data), to obtain data from a year close to the numerator.

Percentage of Students Eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch in Charter Schools and All Public Schools

C. Students of Charter Schools (Part 2)

C. Students of Charter Schools (Part 4)