By Megan Gilbertson
As public charter schools continue to expand here in Arizona, more students are able to access the quality choice offered by these innovative schools.
Our data gurus Kelly Powell and Eric Berschback here at the Association painstakingly verified addresses for every school district campus and public charter school in Arizona. Using the most accurate data available, the team geocoded addresses into latitude and longitude coordinates and connected those to files that map each school to Arizona legislative districts.
What they found was impressive.
No matter where you live in Arizona, students have access to public charter schools.
The table below shows that within every legislative district, Arizona students have access to and are attending a public charter school. The data show the number of public charter students and schools by legislative district. Online schools, which represent over 13,000 students, were geo-located according to their administrative office addresses, though students attend virtual “classes” and complete exercises in locations across the state.
These data also demonstrate that Arizona’s 556 public charter schools are not evenly spread across the state. Though all of Arizona legislative districts have public charter schools, the numbers range from four charter schools to 38 to at least 30 public charter schools in legislative districts 24, 26, and 27.
Legislative district 24 has our highest concentration of public charter schools with nearly 50 percent, while legislative district 27 has the highest concentration of public charter school students, nearly 29 percent. Statewide, over 185,000 students attend one of Arizona 556 public charter schools.
In densely populated areas of Maricopa County, we know about 50 percent of students are choosing charters or other public schools rather than attending their assigned district school. In Arizona’s 11 rural counties, school choice can entail signing up for driving as many as 400 round trips to a quality charter school. Despite the challenges, all Arizona Legislators have constituents attending a public charter school of choice.
Arizona Public Charter Schools by Legislative District
Interested in learning where public charter schools are in your community? Filter below by legislative district to find out.
