Tennessee’s Jackson-Madison County School District appears to be one of those places. In 2021, its schools had an average math proficiency of 10% and an average reading proficiency of 17%. This put it in the bottom 10 of Tennessee school districts and in a significantly worse position than the national average.It would be reasonable to conclude that this may be a prime location for a new charter school.
Why was it denied? The district listed dozens of reasons. But many of those reasons were disputed by the ACA, and some were just bizarre. Also, as I noted, it would be quite difficult for a new charter school to have outcomes worse than those of the traditional public school district there. There is nowhere to go but up. And the data suggest, including a new study from Stanford, that the exact opposite is likely to happen, as charters actually lead to better outcomes on average.
Additionally, the practice of having the school board for the district decide whether or not to allow a certain competitor to open up is quite bizarre. It would be as if we allowed McDonald's to decide when and where a Wendy’s can open in the same neighborhood. The reason it is a bad idea is obvious: The incumbent will always resist new competitors if it has any say in it. That is just natural.
There are so often elementary principles that most people understand that they then completely forget when it comes to education. If monopolies are bad and hurt consumers, for example , then it remains true when the monopolist is the government and the industry is education. It harms students because, just like in regular markets, the absence of competition creates conditions in which there is no incentive to innovate or excel. It traps children in failing public schools with no way out.