Despite their status as public schools that may not discriminate, Idaho’s public charter schools have been accused of “cherry-picking” children from families with higher incomes who are, presumably, easier to educate.The reality is charter school student family incomes reflect the general population.

The chart compares the percentages of students who were eligible for free and reduced lunch during the 2008-09 school year (the most recent year publicly available) in 17 charter schools with the percentages of eligible students from the districts around them. Five charter schools had significantly more students living in poverty than the districts surrounding them, five charter schools had poverty rates within plus or minus 3 percentage points of the districts and seven charters had significantly fewer students living in poverty.

Because many charter schools lack kitchen facilities or otherwise do not participate in the National School Lunch Program, Idaho Freedom Foundation was not able to collect free and reduced lunch statistics for all charter schools. Nevertheless, percentages from 17 charter schools in 12 communities show that, like public schools generally, some public charter schools serve better-off students and some do not. The number of brick and mortar charter schools serving more, about the same, or fewer students living in poverty than the surrounding districts is evenly distributed across the spectrum.

The numbers for the Sandpoint and Pocatello charter schools were supplied by their surrounding districts. The source for all other numbers is "Profiles, Idaho School Districts, 2008-2009." http://cli.gs/uoya277.