Independent, non-instrumentality charters are doing more with much less

May 19, 2016 – Milwaukee, WI – Dr. Will Flanders and CJ Szafir at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) coauthored a new report, “Bang for the Buck,” that analyzes which public schools* in Milwaukee produce the best outcomes per tax dollars spent. By using an econometric model that controls for factors such as socioeconomic status,the study concludes that independent and non-instrumentality charters are more “efficient” than traditional MPS schools and instrumentality charters.

This is the first study to do "return on investment" analysis while taking into account all of Milwaukee’s public charter schools – traditional, instrumentality, non-instrumentality, and independent. These schools have significant differences, such as funding (independent and non-instrumentality charters receive roughly $2,000 per student less than traditional MPS) and autonomy (instrumentality charters are closely connected with traditional MPS schools).

Using data from the WKCE and Badger Exam coupled with the per student funding at each school, the co-authors created an efficiency score for each school. The data and resultant list show that independent and non-instrumentality charter schools are disproportionately ranked highly in efficiency. To double-check this analysis, Dr. Flanders used a richer, econometric technique to account for other important socioeconomic variables at the same time. This analysis also shows that independent and noninstrumentality charter schools are more efficient than traditional public schools, while instrumentality charter schools are equally or, at best, marginally more efficient than traditional public schools.

The most efficient schools in WILL’s study are those that have greater autonomy from the district and receive lower per-pupil funding. This raises a number of important questions for policymakers:

1. Are we smart investors for education? Because independent and non-instrumentalities do more with less, policymakers should reconsider the merits of funding those schools at significantly lower amounts than traditional MPS schools.
2. Are instrumentality charters really “charter” schools? Instrumentality charters, which typically employ union MPS teachers, perform very similar to traditional MPS schools.
3. What is the secret of success for independent and noninstrumentality charters?

*Although all charter schools in Milwaukee are public schools, not all charters are the same. Independent public charter schools are authorized by the City of Milwaukee or University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and have complete control over the administration of their school. Instrumentality and noninstrumentality charters are authorized by MPS and are less autonomous. For example, while non-instrumentalities have the freedom to hire their own teachers (typically non-union) teachers, MPS hires the teachers for instrumentalities and those teachers are generally unionized.