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Though many might still believe that charters take the “cream” of best students, 75% of students actually fall into the category of “at-risk.” Georgiou found that charter school students are more likely to be proficient in reading and math than students in neighboring conventional schools. She also stated that housing developers and community-based organizations are now assisting charter schools by renovating, building, or leasing new facilities. Some developments are even in city centers and may help to reduce middle-class flight. The largest impact of charters on development can be found in the South, as shown by the example of Florida’s Pembrooke Pines partnering with Haskell Educational Services (an EMO, a for-profit educational management organization) to build and operate its first elementary charter school that now serves 5,200 students. Georgiou concluded that at the very least, charters would help improve public schools by providing competition.
The Report Card on American Education: A State-by-State Analysis (LaFevre, 2005) indicated that several studies have suggested that charter schools are especially beneficial to low-income and minority students while serving diverse populations of students. Also mentioned was the fact that fewer charter students repeated grades or dropped out compared with their traditional counterparts. According to the same analysis, California has an above average ranking for charter school law and authorizes 533 charters that serve 181,928 students (April, 2005). Student ethnicity composition for these schools is as follows: White 54.4%, Hispanic 26.6%, Black 10.8%, Asian/Pacific Islander 4.4%, and American-Indian 2.5%.
Finally, Manno (Peterson, 2006) offers evidence that although charters may cause trouble for some school districts, they often wind up saving money for the state. Charters may cost less to operate per student than traditional schools. For example, charters in Ohio received $2,300 less per pupil than local school districts in 1999–2000, but seven of the largest districts in Ohio would have each received $20–$60 million dollars less in state funds had they operated under the charter school funding formula. Sage advice was presented near the end of Manno’s chapter on charter schools, as some have proven to attract greedy operators. He cautioned that it is crucial to have a review and monitor system firmly in place to hold all participants accountable to state expectations.