Bigger Bang, Fewer Bucks? The Productivity of Public Charter Schools in Eight U.S. Cities - Executive Summary

Oct 15, 2026

Report assessing whether public charter schools deliver greater cost-effectiveness and return on investment than traditional public schools across eight major U.S. cities. Using per-pupil revenue and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) outcomes, it calculates cost-effectiveness as NAEP points per $1,000. It estimates ROI by linking K-12 spending to expected lifetime economic benefits, incorporating both sector-specific and hybrid student-spending scenarios. The analysis supports city-level comparisons and weighted averages.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages30

Reading Time1 h 16 min

AccessFree to download

Executive Summary

Background and purpose

Cost-effectiveness methodology

Return-on-investment methodology

Scope, cities, and comparisons

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Bigger Bang, Fewer Bucks?
The Productivity of Public Charter Schools in Eight U.S. Cities
Corey A. DeAngelis Patrick J. Wolf Larry D. Maloney Jay F. May
February 2018

TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS

PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS | | --- | | Atlanta • Boston • Denver • Houston • Indianapolis • New York City • San Antonio • Washington, D.C. | Bigger Bang, Fewer Bucks? The Productivity of Public Charter Schools in Eight U.S. Cities Corey A. DeAngelis Patrick J. Wolf Larry D. Maloney Jay F. May February 2018 School Choice Demonstration Project Department of Education Reform University of Arkansas 201 Graduate Education Building Fayetteville, AR 72701 479-575-5475 [http://www.uaedreform.org/bigger-bang-fewer-bucks-the-productivity-of](http://www.uaedreform.org/bigger-bang-fewer-bucks-the-productivity-of)public-charter-schools-in-eight-u-s-cities/ The University of Arkansas was founded in 1871 as the flagship institution of higher education for the state of Arkansas. Established as a land grant university, its mandate was threefold: to teach students, conduct research, and perform service and outreach. The College of Education and Health Professions established the Department of Education Reform in 2005. The department’s mission is to advance education and economic development by focusing on the improvement of academic achievement in elementary and secondary schools. It conducts research and demonstration projects in five primary areas of reform: teacher quality, leadership, policy, accountability, and school choice. The School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP), based within the Department of Education Reform, is an education research center devoted to the non-partisan study of the effects of school choice policy and is staffed by leading school choice researchers and scholars. Led by Dr. Patrick J. Wolf, Distinguished Professor of Education Reform and Endowed 21st Century Chair in School Choice, SCDP’s national team of researchers, institutional research partners and staff are devoted to the rigorous evaluation of school choice programs and other school improvement efforts across the country. The SCDPis committed to raising and advancing the public’s understanding of the strengthsand limitations of school choice policies and programs by conducting comprehensive research on what happens to students, families, schools and communities when more parents are allowed to choose their child’s school. Bigger Bang, Fewer Bucks? The Productivity of Public Charter Schools in Eight U.S. Cities Executive Summary In 2013-14, the United States spent over $630 billion1 on its public education system in hopes of providing children with greater opportunities to excel academically and improve their life trajectories. While public education dollars have risen at a relatively fast pace historically, education policymakers and practitioners should be seeking to economize, given the uncertainties of future funding levels and underfunded pension liabilities.2 Meanwhile, the number of public charter schools has increased exponentially. From 1991 to 2014, charter school legislation passed in 42 states and the nation’s capital, and student enrollment increased to around 2.7 million.3 Since educational resources are limited, it is imperative that we examine which types of schooling offer society the biggest “bang for the buck.” Both cost-effectiveness and returnon-investment (ROI) analyses compare the productivity of different organizations that are providing a similar service – in this case, public education. Cost-effectiveness is “the efficacy of a program in achieving given intervention outcomes in relation to the program costs.”4 Return-on-investment (ROI) is: A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. ROI measures the amount of return on an investment relative to the investme

FAQs

What question does the report address about school choice?

Whether public charter schools produce a bigger cost-effective and ROI outcome than traditional public schools when comparing education spending and student achievement impacts across eight U.S. cities.

How is cost-effectiveness calculated in the report?

By taking average NAEP math and reading scores for charter and traditional public schools in each city and dividing by each sector’s per-pupil revenue, expressed as NAEP points generated per $1,000 in revenue.

How does the report estimate return on investment (ROI)?

It uses expected economic benefits associated with spending 13 years (K-12) in each sector and also provides a hybrid ROI estimate using 6.5 years in each sector, then converts cognitive impact into city-level ROI using costs.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Quinn Holloway