The NJ Department of Education defines a charter school as a public school that operates as its own Local Education Agency (LEA)* under a charter granted by the Commissioner. The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) is the sole charter school authorizer in New Jersey.
The NJDOE authorizes charter schools consistent with national best practice in charter school authorizing, offering school operators autonomy and opportunities for innovation in exchange for accountability for student outcomes.
* Each charter school is its own school district with its own Board of Trustees/Directors. Hoboken, therefore, has four school districts – one for the Hoboken Board of Education and one for each of Hoboken’s three charter schools.
History of public charter schools and charter schools in NJ
Charter schools were first conceived in the 1970s by an educator in New England who was interested in exploring new approaches to traditional public education. Over the next two decades, charter schools slowly increased in popularity. Minnesota and California were the first states to pass a charter school laws in the early 1990s.
New Jersey passed the Charter School Program Act of 1995 authorizing the Commissioner of Education to formally establish a charter school program “to give parents choices for their children’s education.” In 1997, the NJ Department of Education approved the opening of NJ’s first seventeen charter schools, including Elysian Charter School and Hoboken Charter School. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/19/nyregion/17-recipes-for-charter-schools-that-won-state-seal-of-approval.html Hola Dual Language Charter School was founded in 2010.
Today there are approximately 90 charter schools in New Jersey.
How are NJ charter schools the same as traditional public schools?
Like traditional public schools, charter schools are:
- Public schools
- Open to all students from the region, space-permitting
- Free of charge. Unlike private schools, there is no tuition.
- Non-sectarian and non-discriminating
- Support children with special needs
- Educate children who qualify for public assistance
- Funded by state and local tax dollars, based on enrollment
- Held accountable to strict academic, financial, and managerial standards set by the NJ Department of Education
- Staffed with teachers and support staff holding the appropriate NJ state certifications
- Governed by a non-profit, independent, volunteer Board of Trustees/Directors
- Required to participate in all Statewide Achievement Testing programs
How are NJ charter schools different from traditional public schools?
Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools:
- Typically have a unique mission
- Encourage and employ the use of innovative learning methods
- Are often founded by educators, parents, or a combination of both
- Often have greater demand than supply due to their restricted, smaller size – making lotteries the method of choice for randomly selecting students (with extra weight given to families who qualify for public assistance)
- Are required to be renewed every 5 years in the State of New Jersey by the Department of Education
- Receive less funding from the government than traditional public schools
Charter funding is particularly challenging in NJ. For example, the State of NJ (unlike the majority of states) does not provide any facilities aid from the state or through local funds, so public charter schools must use operating funds (otherwise used for teacher salaries and classroom expenditures) to pay for their facilities. NJ Charters pay rent or a mortgage from their per pupil funding. To help close the gap, charter school parent associations/”Friends” organizations actively fundraise. See Charter School Funding for more information
Charter schools by the numbers:
- 3 public charter schools in Hoboken
- 30% of K-8 public school students in Hoboken are in charter schools
- 1000+ students are in Hoboken’s charter schools each year
- 700+ students are on the waitlist for a charter seat in Hoboken (each school’s charter sets the maximum number of students who can enroll regardless of demand)
- As of June 2021, there were 91 charter schools in NJ and almost 60,000 students enrolled in them
- Hoboken’s charter schools receive 30%-40% less government funding per child than the Hoboken Board of Education district