Alternative Lifestyles

In an attempt to create more opportunities for charter schools and/or improve the quality of charter school authorizing, some states are allowing "alternative" authorizers--such as state level charter boards, institutions of higher education, mayors and other municipal officials, and nonprofit or philanthropic organizations--to approve charter schools in addition to or instead of the local and state boards of ed that approve and oversee charters in most states. A new Progressive Policy Institute report by Louann Berlein Palmer looks at how these alternate authorizers are performing.