Can Charter Public Schools help a community in ways other than education?
Yes. In addition to the traditional public schools benefitting from the adoption of successful charter public school methods, there are also significant economic benefits to the community. The Illinois Network of Charter Schools recently unveiled the Charter Impact Projector (CHIP), a new tool that helps Illinois communities project the economic benefit of charter public schools. Among other findings, CHIP determined that, conservatively, the annual financial benefit to Rockford of turning one high school drop-out into a college graduate ranges from $38,400 to $42,000 per graduate per year. This translates into a five-year economic benefit to Rockford of more than $11 million (based on one charter public high school with 100 students).
