The Effect of Charter School Openings on Traditional Public Schools in North Carolina and Massachusetts

Abstract

The expansion of charter schools has fueled concerns about their effects on traditional public schools. I use a novel identification strategy to identify the effect of charter openings on traditional public schools in Massachusetts and North Carolina that compares schools near charters to those near sites that were considered by charter operators but never occupied. I find that traditional public schools near charters experience marginal enrollment losses of 4.5% but find no effect on student achievement, ruling out effects of about +/- 0.02 standard deviations. My results suggest charter openings are neither helping nor harming traditional public schools.