New charter schools in the Charlotte area only received two-thirds of the students they expected this year.
Nine charter schools opened this year in the Charlotte area. Concrete Roses STEM Academy closed after the first month. The remaining schools expected to receive about 2,400 students, but according to the state department of public instruction only 1,643 enrolled.
Bradford Preparatory School and Pioneer Springs Community School had more students than expected. But Charlotte Learning Academy and Entrepreneur High School had fewer than half the students they projected.
These numbers matter because the state ties funding to them. If charter schools don’t get enough students, they may not have enough money to operate. That played a factor in both the closings of Concrete Roses this year and StudentFirst Academy last school year.
Partly because charters didn’t get the numbers they expected, the state will have to transfer money to local districts.
This year charter schools in Mecklenburg County enrolled about 10,700 students. That’s about 2,000 more students than last year.
