Chapter 11: Charter Schools, Communities, and Local Newspapers: New Questions to Examine

As the number of autonomous charter schools begins to reach critical mass in some cities across the nation, there is evidence of an information gap between the knowledge citizens have about charter schools and their willingness to support them. To begin to understand this information gap, we conducted a study of local newspaper coverage of charter schools in eight cities with the highest concentration of public school students enrolled in charter schools. Recognizing local newspapers as a primary source for citizen knowledge, we examined data from a Lexis Nexis study of charter school coverage to explore how information about charter schools is communicated through the press. We hypothesize that the policies that protect charter schools from citizen interference also shelter schools from the press, limiting the amount of information disseminated to the local community about charter schools.