A reckoning is underway in the dizzying landscape of charter schools, and Texas finds itself squarely in the spotlight. A major new report from the Network for Public Education (NPE) lays bare the financial waste, poor academic performance, and growing disillusionment surrounding charter schools nationwide. Coupled with state-specific data from , lays bare the financial waste, poor academic performance, and growing disillusionment surrounding charter schools nationwide. Coupled with state-specific data from Our Schools Our Democracy’s (OSOD) 2025 legislative wrap-up, the message is clear: the charter experiment has failed too many students and taxpayers for too long.Our Schools Our Democracy’s (OSOD) 2025 legislative wrap-up, the message is clear: the decades-long charter experiment has failed too many students and taxpayers.
The NPE report, The Charter School Reckoning: Decline, Disillusionment, and Cost, reveals that while charter schools were once sold to the public as innovative solutions to public education challenges, the reality is far more troubling. Charter school enrollment is declining nationally, down 3% between 2019 and 2023, as families grow increasingly skeptical. Meanwhile, the cost of maintaining this parallel system has exploded, with nearly $1 billion in federal Charter Schools Program (CSP) grants going to charter schools that either never opened or shut down shortly after launch.
‘Ghost Schools’ Phenomenon
The scale of this waste hits particularly hard in Texas. In the 2023–24 biennium, Texas funneled $4.4 billion in taxpayer dollars to charter schools, while neighborhood public schools faced persistent underfunding. And because the state has no cap on new charter campuses, that number will only grow. In the words of Dr. Tiffany Clark, District 13’s representative on the State Board of Education (SBOE), “We are approving the same systems that have failed our students over and over again.”
To illustrate this point, the NPE report devotes an entire section to the phenomenon of “ghost schools,” charters that receive millions in startup funding but never open their doors. For example, The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools claims that in 2022-23, there were 8,150 charter schools nationwide. However, the National Center for Education Statistics found that there were 7,999. Of those 7,999 schools:
- 68 had no enrollment
- 150 reported enrollment of 25 or fewer students
- 165 closed the same year
This legislative session, advocates in Texas fought back. OSOD’s 2025 wrap-up highlights major wins in the fight to hold charter schools accountable. Most notably, the Texas Legislature approved a budget rider requiring the state auditor to conduct a full investigation into the Texas Education Agency’s oversight of charter schools, the first such audit in the agency’s history. Legislators also passed new laws ending key exemptions that charter schools had long enjoyed. These include laws requiring greater financial transparency on school bonds and banning related-party real estate deals that enrich board members or affiliates at the expense of students.
‘Austerity in Disguise’
That momentum followed OSOD’s groundbreaking February report marking 30 years of charter school policy in Texas. The report found that between 2016 and 2021, a staggering 81% of new charter campuses approved by the state received a D or F academic rating. Those findings prompted a rare bipartisan move by the SBOE to veto two new charter applications and request a performance report on charters recently approved by the TEA.
But even with those wins, the charter lobby remains powerful in Texas. As Dallas Weekly reported last month, new charter campuses continue to sprout in low-income and predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods, where families often feel they have no real public school option given the underfunding of their community’s schools. Instead of helping with those existing problems, charter expansion does more harm. Advocates argue that charter expansion often amounts to “austerity in disguise,” pulling enrollment, and thus funding, from nearby neighborhood schools without improving outcomes.
This pattern is especially concerning given the state’s ongoing teacher shortage and the fact that nearly half of all Texas charter teachers in 2023–24 were uncertified, compared to just 7% in traditional public schools. Yet charter operators continue to receive state funding while evading teacher certification requirements, public elections for their boards, and even voter approval for bond debt.
Parents and educators are taking notice. OSOD’s public testimony campaigns, social media organizing, and parent advocacy efforts played a key role in this year’s legislative session. One particularly moving campaign, “Don’t Throw My Kid Away,” featured parents mailing lawmakers photos of their children with personal messages opposing school privatization. It’s this kind of grassroots organizing that is shifting the narrative inside the Capitol.
Looking Ahead
Still, the fight isn’t over. Charter school advocates continue to push for more funding and less regulation, even as results lag and public support dwindles. And with Texas scheduled to launch a $1 billion private school voucher program in 2026, the stakes for public education have never been higher.
Both the NPE and OSOD reports urge lawmakers and voters alike to see charter schools as a cautionary tale rather than a solution. It’s become clear that elected officials can’t claim to support school choice while gutting the only real choice most Texans have: their neighborhood public schools.
Texas now has a choice: continue doubling down on a costly, underperforming charter sector, or chart a new course that puts students, not speculation, at the center of public education.