Charter and magnet schools are well represented in the top tier of the U.S. News Best High Schools rankings: In 2022, 36% of the top 50 high schools were magnets and 14% were charters. And there are thousands of charter and magnet elementary and middle schools, as well.
Both models — when compared with the long history of traditional public schools — are relatively new. Magnet schools came into existence in the late 1960s as districts looked to encourage voluntary desegregation by attracting diverse groups to enroll around specific academic specialties. Charter schools followed in the early 1990s, with the goal of being more flexible and innovative than traditional counterparts.
[READ: Understanding Charter Schools vs. Public Schools.]
“I think every community benefits from having a mix of these kinds of schools,” says Christine Campbell, who spent two decades researching school choice for the Center on Reinventing Public Education before recently moving to an admissions role at Seattle University in Washington.
Magnets and charters are publicly funded schools, albeit with slight differences in funding structures and features that allow both to have greater control over the curriculum. Charter schools tend to have more autonomy, but both can differentiate from what district public schools do, says Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C. think tank.
Campbell says that allows charters and magnets to be more responsive and to “have autonomy over decisions that allow them to not only create a program and culture that they think will be successful, (but) they also have the autonomy to act quickly over things that matter so they can respond to areas of weakness, or adapt to challenges.”
At both magnets and charters, admission is often determined by a lottery system due to high demand for limited seats. However, some magnet schools vet applicants through a rigorous admissions process based on grades, test scores, portfolios or auditions.
In the 2019-20 school year, nearly 2.7 million students were enrolled in magnet schools and more than 3.4 million were enrolled in charters, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Magnet and charter schools have differences as well as similarities.
Magnet Schools
Magnet schools are typically organized around a “theme” or area of interest, such as STEM or fine and performing arts.
[READ:What Is a Magnet School?]
“A lot of these schools offer specializations that appeal to families,” Valant says. “If you see a fit between your child’s interests and strengths, it can be a really good choice for a student. They can be good for parents who know their child wants to specialize in a certain area.”
The drawback, however, is that specializing tends to narrow the types of courses offered.
“In some of those schools you might not see the breadth of offerings like in a big district high school that has everything for everybody,” he says. “You need to be clear that you want that kind of specialization.”
Some magnets also have strong academic programs and highly competitive admissions hat attract families.
For instance, the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia, U.S. News’ top-ranked high school in the country, had an acceptance rate of 21.6% for the class of 2026, up from 18% the year before. In 2022, the school’s graduation rate was 100%, and 100% of students passed at least one Advanced Placement exam, according to U.S. News data.
Roughly 25% of magnets use academic performance as admissions criteria, according to the nonprofit Magnet Schools of America. Charter schools, by contrast, do not use selective admissions, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, also a nonprofit organization.
Another key difference, Valant says, is that magnet schools are often bound to regulations that charters may be excluded from, because typically magnets are governed by the local school board. Some policies and potentially the academic calendar for magnet schools can be set at the local district’s discretion.
“While magnet schools can differentiate themselves, and they often do on their theme and admissions practices, they still are sort of more hooked into what the district is doing,” Valant says. “The vast majority of charters do not have that type of relationship with school districts.”
Charter Schools
While charters are part of the public school system, they are operated by independent organizations separate from district leadership and the local school board.
“You tend to see more distance between charter schools and school districts when it comes to policies than you do between magnet schools and their host districts,” Valant says.
Charter schools tend to have more flexibility in how they educate students, says Debbie Veney, senior vice president of communications and marketing for the NAPCS. One example would be the ability to construct a longer school day, “which could be appealing to working parents who might appreciate an earlier drop-off time or later pick-up time and more instructional time for the student,” she says.
Charter schools also have the freedom to adjust the amount of instructional time in a given subject, which could help some students who need more attention in certain disciplines, Veney says.
There’s a lot of autonomy in charter schools, but with it comes responsibility and high expectations, says Shannon Hughes, a college counselor and teacher at Signature School, a charter high school in Evansville, Indiana that is ranked third in the nation by U.S. News.
For example, some things that might be present at a traditional public school, like pep assemblies or athletic-focused events during the school day that might take away from class time, don’t typically happen at Signature School, she says.
Students there are expected to be “all in” academically, which Hughes says could be a drawback for some families.
“We’re about academics, so that part of school life, we take our energy and focus it on the classroom,” Hughes says. “That’s not to say that we don’t have tons of clubs and extracurriculars and field day activities and planned field trips. We do, but it’s all kind of about the experience of academic learning.”
Veney says charter school activities vary depending on the focus of the individual school.
[READ:What Is a Montessori School?]
Seven states — Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia — had no charter schools as of the 2019-2020 school year, according to NCES. Valant emphasizes that laws governing charter schools vary by state, and sometimes even by city.
The politics around charter schools are as varied as the laws. Some states have resisted introducing charters, citing concerns about shifting money away from traditional public schools.
Campbell notes that another common criticism of charters is that some schools — albeit a minority — are operated by for-profit organizations. According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, about 12% of charters are run by for-profit operators.
“I think charter schools have had a pretty rocky lifetime so far. They’ve often been viewed outside of the public school domain, even though they are public schools,” Campbell says, adding that magnets also attract some controversy due to uneven levels of funding. “Magnet schools often get more funds, and that can be contentious for other nearby schools that don’t have that. But for the most part, I think they’re given a lot of support, and I would say that charter schools operate in a more adversarial environment.”
Choosing a School
When it comes to deciding on whether to choose a charter or a magnet school as an alternative to traditional public schools, context matters. It comes down to individual fit, experts say. Magnet and charters tend to be smaller schools, Veney says, and they can also offer a more focused and individualized educational experience for students.
“I think it’s the like-mindedness, the oneness of purpose that creates an environment where you can get a lot done,” Hughes says.
Campbell encourages parents to thoroughly research the schools they are considering, particularly how well students in their own demographic group are served. Families can dig into data such as test scores, class size and, for high schools, graduation and college acceptance rates.
Campbell also encourages parents to consider extracurricular activities, noting that some charter or magnet schools don’t offer sports or arts programs. If those options are important to a student, that may be a drawback, regardless of the strength of the school’s academic programs.
“Take stock of what matters to you, and what makes your child happy and excited,” Campbell says. “And you might find that you have just crossed off a school that all your friends and family think is amazing, but when you look at the pieces more closely, it just doesn’t deliver.”
See the complete rankings of the Best High Schools.
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Magnet vs. Charter Schools: Differences Explained originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 02/22/23: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
