Q: What is the difference between a charter school and a typical public school?

A: Both are public and financed with public money. However, charter schools are autonomous and each one operates as though it were its own one-school district. Charters are overseen by a board of trustees that functions like a school committee, and the board generally includes teachers, parents and community members.

The trustees and school director choose the curriculum and decide how the school is staffed, such as hiring a school psychologist or reading coach instead of an assistant principal or budget director. However, the schools are held to the same academic standards and sanctions as regular public schools, and charter school students must take the same statewide tests as other public school students.

Many charter schools emphasize themes that help to shape the school’s culture, such as the arts, the environment and building a community. Some have student uniforms. Most have a smaller class size than regular public schools.

Q: Who are charter school students?

A: Charter schools students live in 31 of the state’s 39 communities, although 78 percent come from the state’s urban core: Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence and Woonsocket. In addition, 64 percent qualify for free and reduced lunch, compared with 38 percent of public students overall. Also, 70 percent of charter school students are minorities, compared with 31 percent of public students overall, according to the Rhode Island League of Charter Schools.

Q: How many charter schools are there in Rhode Island?

A: There are 11: Beacon Charter School in Woonsocket; Blackstone Academy in Pawtucket; Compass School in South Kingstown; Paul Cuffee School in Providence; Highlander Charter Elementary School in Providence; International Charter School in Pawtucket; Kingston Hill Academy in South Kingstown; The Learning Community in Central Falls; NEL/Cranston Construction and Career Academy in Cranston; Textron/Chamber of Commerce Charter High School in Providence; and Times ² Academy in Providence.

Q: Why aren’t there more charter schools in Rhode Island?

A: State law caps the total number of charter schools statewide at 20, although an earlier restriction limiting Providence to 4 and other communities to 2 was removed a few years ago. Lawmakers established a moratorium against starting new charter schools in 2004 and extended the freeze through the current school year. The moratorium is set to expire June 30, and it is uncertain if it will be extended.

Q: Are charter schools popular in Rhode Island?

A: Yes. About 3,100 students currently attend Rhode Island charter schools. Last year, an additional 2,552 students applied for just 400 open spots, leaving a wait list of 2,152 students.

Q: What is the attraction?

A: Innovative teaching approaches, smaller class size, parent involvement, a positive school culture and freedom from some of the practices and restrictions of traditional public schools are among the most often-cited reasons Rhode Island parents and students are attracted to charter schools.

Q: Who regulates charter schools?

A: The Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education authorizes charter schools, and the state Department of Education regulates them. Charters must file financial statements regularly with the department and seek reauthorization every five years.

Q: Is it true charter schools accept only the best students?

A: No. Any student who lives within the area that the charter school serves can apply. However, both supporters and critics of charters acknowledge that, in most cases, there is a higher level of parental involvement at charters, which has a positive influence on student achievement.

Popular charter schools in Rhode Island admit students through a public lottery system, held in the spring. The state Department of Education advises charter schools that their student composition should reflect the demographics of the district where the charter school is located. State education officials say that recommendation will be relaxed next year because of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, and schools will move to an open lottery system that does not take race and ethnicity into account.

Q: Do charters charge tuition?

A: No. Charter schools, like other public schools, do not charge tuition, and charters that require uniforms pay for them out of their school budget.

Q: Are charter school teachers union or nonunion?

A: Three of the state’s charter schools are unionized with the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers: Textron, Times ² Academy and New England Laborers/Cranston Construction Careers Academy. The rest are nonunion, although independent (also called nonaffiliated) charter school teachers receive many of the same benefits and the same pay as unionized teachers in the district.

Independent charter school directors have greater control over class assignments and hiring and firing of teachers than do principals working in regular public schools.

Q: Critics of charter schools say they take money way from regular public schools. Is this true?

A: It depends on whom you ask.

Charter supporters say no and point out that the approximately $31 million that charter schools receive from the state is completely separate from the state aid to local school districts.

However, critics counter that local school districts are forced to pay a portion of the per-pupil cost of students they lose to charter schools — a cost that hits suburban districts harder than urban ones. Because local property tax revenue covers the bulk of suburban district budgets, they must pay a larger portion of the per-pupil charter school cost. In urban districts where the state covers most education costs, fewer local dollars follow charter school students.

For example, in Providence, where the estimated per-student cost is about $13,000, the city pays about $2,000 and the state $11,000 for students going to charter schools. In South Kingstown, which spends about $14,000 per pupil, the town pays $10,000 per student while the state pays $4,000 to the charters. The situation in South Kingstown, one of the few suburban communities with charters, was one of the reasons lawmakers put in place the moratorium on new charters, saying the issues needed further study.

Critics say that when a school district loses students to a charter, not all the costs associated with the students go away. If a district loses 5, 10, even 100 students to a local charter, district schools can’t always “save” money by reducing staff, closing a program or eliminating a bus route.

Because of this, local districts are allowed to keep 5 percent of per-pupil cost of each student they lose to a charter school. So, in effect, charter schools educate students for less than the per-pupil cost of the districts from which the students come.