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Paying for the Vision: Charter School Revenue and Expenditures (2003) This report analyzes actual revenue and expenditure data in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina and Texas; revenue was studied in California, the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania. Covering fiscal 1998 or 1999, the data include revenue for 600 charter schools in the 12 states and expenditures for approximately 450 charter schools in nine of these states.

Update on Student Achievement for Edison Schools Inc. (2003) More than seven years after the first school opened its doors under Edison's management, the company has amassed a revealing track record. Edison Schools Inc. can boast of some successes, but it must also account for a substantial number of schools that have significantly lagged behind comparable public schools.

Student Achievement in Schools Managed by Mosaica Education (2003) The first comprehensive effort to assess student achievement in public schools managed by Mosaica Education, Inc., one of the leading private management companies in education, marketing itself to charter boards and school districts since 1997.

Do Charter School Measure Up? The Charter School Experiment After 10 Years (2002) This report studied the decade-long charter school movement and found that while some charter schools are working, the vast majority have not lived up to their promise. The cornerstone idea of the original charter school movement was to raise student achievement through innovation. However, as this report shows, where data are available charter schools generally are not more effective, and often less effective, than comparable regular public schools.

Revenues, Expenditures and Taxpayer Subsidies In Milwaukee’s Voucher Schools (2001) This study reveals that Wisconsin taxpayers pay more for Milwaukee voucher students than tuition-paying families pay at private and religious schools participating in the program.

Public Money and the Privatization of K-12 Education (2000)

Trends in Student Achievement for Edison Schools, Inc.: The Emerging Track Record (2000) This report finds that five years after their first schools opened, students in Edison schools mostly perform as well as or worse than students in comparable public schools; occasionally they perform better.

Venturesome Capital: State Charter School Finance Systems (2000) The first report of the National Charter School Finance Study examines the laws, regulations and state practices governing charter school finance during the 1998-99 school year in 23 states and two cities.

What Does Private Management Offer Public Education? (2000) No independent evaluation of student achievement in schools managed by companies has shown superior performance, and some independent evaluations found failure.

Student Achievement in Edison Schools: Mixed Results in an Ongoing Enterprise (1998) This comprehensive report finds uneven quality and mixed results in raising student achievement in schools run by the Edison Project, a private, for-profit company now managing 25 public schools across the United States. 

How Much Thirty Thousand Charter Schools Cost (1997) Presented at the annual meeting of the American Education Finance Association, this paper compares charter school costs to public school costs and describes charter school financing provisions in six states--Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan and Minnesota.

How Private Management Firms Seek to Make Money in Public Schools (1997) This report addresses issues that have received less attention than student achievement and the mismanagement of federal programs such as funding, financial incentives, and resource allocation. It concentrates not so much on whether or not private management works, but on how it works.

How Private Managers Make Money In Public Schools: Update On the EAI Experiment in Baltimore (1997) This report draws on information available from the Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS), EAI reports and documents, an evaluation done by the University of Maryland/Baltimore County (UMBC), and press reports to provide an up-to-date analysis of EAI's operations, finances, and results thus far in Baltimore.

The Cleveland Voucher Program: Who Chooses? Who Gets Chosen? Who Pays? (1997) This report examines the origins, implementation, and costs of the Cleveland school voucher program: showing that vouchers cost more than commonly believed and that only 33 percent of the voucher students were former public school students.

Charter School Laws, Do they Measure Up? (1996) Includes AFT criteria for good charter schools and how each state measures up as well as descriptions of charter school laws in each state.

Setting the Record Straight: Update on Student Achievement in the EAI-Run Schools in Baltimore (1996) This report presents objective information to set the record straight and provide a wrap-up on student performance in EAI-run schools. Data come from the Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS), EAI reports and documents, the third-party evaluation done by the University of Maryland Baltimore Campus (UMBC), and press reports.