Charter schools are outsourced schools, also known as contract schools. They are privately operated, deregulated, and laser-focused on siphoning substantial sums of public money, services, and facilities from public schools. Charter schools are essentially pay-the-rich schemes masquerading as great inventions designed to close the century-old “achievement gap.” There is nothing grass-roots about them.
Recognizing that privatization intensifies corruption, inefficiency, nepotism, opportunism, and criminal conduct wherever it appears, it comes as no surprise that scandal, controversy, and failure have long-plagued the charter school sector nationwide.
A February 11, 2026, article in Chalkbeat, “Underfunding or mismanagement? Financial troubles at multiple Chicago charters spur a push for answers and solutions,” highlights long-standing problems in the city’s many charter school networks: “ASPIRA is one of a string of charters in the city that have floundered financially and in some cases moved to merge or close schools over the past year and a half.” This is a story told repeatedly across the country. The article’s title is misleading because charter schools are quintessential private entities with no legitimate claim to public funding. To suggest that there is charter school “underfunding” is thus disinformation. The question is: why are businesses such as charter schools receiving any public funds at all?
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) oversees most city charter schools, which together enroll about 50,000 students. For his part, Alfonso Carmona, the district’s interim chief education officer, says “charters face a widespread and systemic crisis.” As in other states and cities, this has long been the case. Problems are so bad that CPS predicts that half a dozen charter operators will “end this fiscal year in the red.” Fiscal problems in charter schools are often accompanied by low enrollment, poor operational decisions, and weak academic performance.
Several considerations arise here.
First, chaos, mismanagement, and fiscal problems are long-standing problems in the entire charter school sector. They have been present in thousands of charter schools nationwide for more than three decades. Privatization lends itself to such problems. What is new about these problems is that they worsen steadily each year. The extent of collapse and failure continues to increase annually. Accountability has been so low in the charter school for 30+ years that many refer to it as “accountabaloney.” No one should expect this to change with more neoliberal state restructuring that privileges private interests over public authority and democracy.
Second, traditional public schools, state governments, and the federal government should not permit the transfer of any public funds or assets to charter schools, as they are private entities rather than public organizations. Public resources do not belong to private interests; they belong to the public. Public authorities should also not permit charter school owners and operators to create the impression that the endless problems plaguing charter schools are caused by traditional school districts, state governments, and the federal government. That is straightforward disinformation. Many problems would actually be solved if no charter schools were created by neoliberals and privatizers in the first place.
Third, it is important to avoid false debates, such as whether charter schools are underfunded or funded equitably. It cannot be overstated that charter schools are not public schools, no matter how many times charter advocates assert otherwise. An entity does not become public property just because the label “public” is slapped on it. Nor does it become public just because it receives public money. Public means something broader and deeper. Public funds must be kept in traditional public schools.
It behooves CPS to stop enabling charter schools and their persistent problems, as these all come at the expense of CPS teachers, students, principals, and parents. By the same token, students, teachers, and principals in Chicago’s charter schools have been subjected to various forms of humiliation and problems by charter school operators such as Acero Schools, Noble Schools, and Aspira Schools.
The struggle between unconscious acceptance of outsourced schools and conscious rejection of such privatized education arrangements is likely to intensify in the months and years ahead. Humans will always strive to become aware of reality, even in the face of disinformation and intense cultural oppression and aggression.