Charter Management Organizations

The charter school movement began in 1991 with Minnesota enacting the first state school law. By the 2012–2013 school year, 42 states and the District of Columbia had enacted charter school laws, and there were more than 2 million students in nearly 6,000 charter schools across the country. Over the years, the one-by-one approach to charter schooling was joined by the growth of networks of charter schools. First, for-profit education management organizations (EMOs) joined the educational landscape to provide services to traditional public schools. As the charter sector developed, EMOs were well positioned to enter the charter market. By the late 1990s, EMOs were joined by their nonprofit counterparts, charter management organizations (CMOs). A CMO is a nonprofit organization that manages multiple charter schools with ...