Many top Louisiana charter schools fail to enroll enough low-income students, report shows

Around one in ten of Louisiana's charter schools did not meet a state requirement on enrolling economically-disadvantaged students during the 2021-2022 school year, an audit found, but the state has seen significant improvement over the last few years.

The Louisiana Legislative Auditor found that around 18.5% of the charter schools authorized by local school boards and 14.3% of state-authorized charter schools did not meet the requirements for enrolling economically-disadvantaged students from the 2016-2017 school year to 2021-2022.

With some exceptions, most charter schools must have an economically-disadvantaged enrollment that is at least 85% of the rate for the area where it operates.

In his letter to legislative leaders, Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack wrote that, while a majority of schools have met state requirements, many of those that haven't are schools with high levels of academic achievement.

"We found most charter schools do enroll a sufficient number of economically- disadvantaged students, but a relatively small group – most of which are high academic performers – have chronically low enrollment of economically-disadvantaged students," Waguespack wrote. "Lower- rated schools were more likely to have higher rates of economically-disadvantaged student enrollment and higher rates of compliance with the requirement than A-rated schools."

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Caroline Roemer, the executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools, says the report shows the significant rate of improvement for charter schools in enrolling students with financial difficulties.

"The good news is that our numbers are getting better," Roemer said. "Even some of the schools that are out of compliance, it's very minimal numbers. We do still have some that have work to be done, and the authorizer, I think, is directing them in creating those corrective actions."

How many schools are out of compliance?

Combining both state- and locally-authorized schools, around 16.8% of charter schools fell short of the requirement on average over the last six school years. But generally speaking, the schools have seen steady improvement over that span.

During the 2017-2018 school year, more than 22% of charter schools weren't meeting the state requirement, which was the highest mark over the last six years. By the most recent school year, the percentage dropped to 10.3% with only 11 out of 107 schools falling short.

Schools authorized by the state were more likely to meet the state guidelines, the audit showed. Over the six-year period, an average of 14.3% of state-authorized schools did not meet the requirement versus 18.5% of locally-controlled schools.

During the 2021-2022 school year, 7.5% of schools overseen by the state missed the mark compared to 11.9% of locally-authorized schools.

Nine charter schools authorized by the state did not meet the requirement at least once over the six-year period included in the audit. Of the nine, three did not meet the requirement all six years: Acadiana Renaissance Charter Academy in Youngsville, Louisiana High School for Agricultural Sciences in Bunkie, and Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans in New Orleans.

The other six schools failed to meet the requirement in at least one of the years and included: The MAX Charter School in Thibodaux, Avoyelles Public Charter School in Mansura, D'Arbonne Woods Charter School in Union Parish, Madison Preparatory Academy in Baton Rouge, Delta Charter School in Ferriday, and Northeast Claiborne Center in Summerfield.

Eighteen locally-authorized schools missed the requirement at least once in the last six years, and seven fell short during every year they were open during that stretch. Three did not meet the requirement all six years: Bayou Community Academy in Thibodaux, Bricolage Academy in New Orleans, and Robert Russa Moton Charter School in New Orleans.

BASIS Baton Rouge was open for four of the last six years, and failed to meet the enrollment requirement all four years. The Dr. John Ochsner Discovery Health Sciences Academy in Jefferson did not meet the mark in the two years it was open. Edward Hynes Charter School - UNO in New Orleans fell short during the three years it was open.

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The International School of Louisiana - Jefferson was only open for one year during the span, but it did not meet the enrollment requirements.

Three schools fell short of the requirement for five of the six years: Beekman Charter School in Bastrop, Lusher Charter School in New Orleans and Slaughter Community Charter School.

Other schools that did not meet the requirement at least once in the six year period include: Lake Forest Elementary Charter School in New Orleans, Elan Academy Charter School in New Orleans, Audubon Charter School - Gentilly in New Orleans, Kenner Health Discovery, The Emerge School for Autism in Baton Rouge, Downsville Charter School, Edward Hynes Charter School in New Orleans, and Northshore Charter School in Bogalusa.

Schools not meeting the requirement were generally higher performing

Around half of the schools that were not meeting the economically-disadvantaged enrollment mark were A-graded schools and another 20% were B-rated schools, according to the audit.

One of the findings in the argument was that state law does not provide much guidance on enforcing the enrollment requirement.

The schools are subject to re-authorization by either the local school board or the state, but the only requirement explicitly listed in state law for re-authorization is related to student performance. With performance being the only real standard, schools are incentivized to reduce the number of economically-disadvantaged students, according to the audit.

"The importance of academic performance may create an incentive for schools to minimize enrollment of economically-disadvantaged students to improve academic performance – which is vitally important for a school’s renewal," the audit says. "Compliance with the required economically- disadvantaged enrollment percentage is not a renewal requirement."

The audit also stresses that any potential penalties that come from falling short of the enrollment requirement should not be at the expense of student success.

The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, or BESE, does have some recourse, such as shorter renewal periods or corrective action plans, but these have had mixed success, according to the audit.

What changes could be made?

The audit outlined two suggestions for state legislators to consider. One would be to define how to enforce the requirement, such as making it a stronger component of the renewal process or changing lottery systems to admit all economically-disadvantaged students until the requirement has been met.

The other suggestion is to enact provisions to give the state more enforcement options for schools that repeatedly miss out on the requirement.

In his written response to the audit, Cade Brumley, the state's superintendent, said that the Department of Education has put some interventions in place that have led to some improvement.

For example, LDE is requiring weighted lotteries for BESE-authorized schools that are not meeting enrollment requirements and is requiring them to submit plans on how they will diversify enrollment.

While Brumley did not specifically endorse the suggestions made in the audit, he did say the audit correctly identified the lack of enforcement options at the state's disposal, especially for locally-authorized schools.

"The LLA correctly describes that the LDE has relatively no authority to affect change in the area of economically disadvantaged student enrollment in charter schools authorized by local school systems," Brumley wrote. "There is no clear pathway for the LDE to set expectations for local authorizers nor to hold them accountable from a legal or statutory perspective."

During the 2022 legislative session, there was some appetite to make changes to charter school demographic standards. House Bill 940, proposed by Baton Rouge Republican Rep. Barbara Freiberg, would have changed the economically-disadvantaged enrollment requirement to be based on the parish's population rather than the students actually enrolled in the school district.

The bill ultimately passed out of the house, but it was amended in the senate. The house rejected the senate's amendments, stalling out the bill.

Under the current law, an individual charter school has to ensure its student body reflects the makeup of the school district, but the individual public schools aren't subject to that same requirement, Roemer said.

"They're making us have a demographic that is reflective of the school district's average, but the school districts themselves don't have to follow this law," she said. "You will often see that they themselves have schools that are far from the average."

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This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Do Louisiana charter schools have enough low-income students?