North Carolina’s charter public school law ranks 14th in the nation, moving up two spots from last year, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ annual state-by-state ranking of charter school laws, titled Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws, released this week.

“We are proud that North Carolina’s charter public school law is moving up in the national ranking as measured by the National Alliance. This is key to the advancement of the charter public school movement in North Carolina and for students across our state,” said Lisa Gordon Stella, chairwoman of the North Carolina Alliance for Public Charter Schools

“North Carolina leaders have positioned public charter schools as a significant part of the overall public education environment by making significant changes to the law,” said Darrell Allison, president of the Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina.”Though we are pleased with the growth of public charter schools in our state over the past few years, we are even more encouraged by their focus and commitment to quality growth. As that continues, I have no doubt North Carolina will continue to trend upward on all fronts.”

“As we celebrate 2016 as the twentieth anniversary of our charter public school law, we still have a long way to go to get fairness in local funding and especially facilities costs for charter public school students,” said Eddie Goodall, executive director of the North Carolina Public Charter Schools Association. “However, in 2015 our Association successfully requested legislators remove some of the artificial barriers for new charter applications. We also thank our General Assembly for its partial removal of North Carolina’s onerous $50,000 ‘dissolution fee’ that is assessed on charter applicants.”

North Carolina’s score increased from 148 to 152 points (out of 228). Based on the findings in this report, the National Alliance recommends North Carolina strengthen its law by ensuring equitable operational funding and equitable access to capital funding and facilities and providing adequate authorizer funding.

“This is a critical time as parent demand for high-quality public schools is at a record high,”said Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.“By enacting strong charter school laws and implementing them effectively, states will significantly expand the number of great public schools available to families, particularly those most in need of better options. Fortunately, many states have responded by accelerating improvements to their charter school laws, and we hope to see additional improvements in the 2016 legislative sessions.”

The report analyzes charter school laws in 42 states and the District of Columbia. Eight states do not have a charter school law and are not included in the rankings: Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia.

Improvements to charter public school laws in several states shook up the state rankings in this year’s report. Key findings from this year’s report include:

• Indiana is ranked first, moving up from fifth in last year’s report and from 29th when the report was first issued in 2010.  Indiana’s ascension is a result of legislative changes in autonomy, accountability and funding made in 2015, as well as the culmination of efforts since 2011 by two governors and several key legislators from the House and Senate to ensure Indiana has the strongest charter school law in the country.

• Alabama is ranked second this year, their first year in the rankings. Alabama became the 43rd state to enact a public charter school law in 2015. Alabama lawmakers took great care in writing this law to ensure that the state heeded the lessons learned in the first quarter-century of the charter movement.

• Minnesota moved from first to third, marking only the second time in the seven years that Minnesota is not ranked on top. This drop was due to positive changes made in other states, not due to any steps backward in Minnesota.

• Oklahoma made the biggest jump – from 36th to 19th –because it enacted legislation that overhauled its law, including statewide expansion, school and authorizer accountability, and replication of high-quality charters. Its point total jumped from 112 to 147 points –a 35-point increase –and the highest in this year’s report.

• Maryland continues to hold the 43rd spot, having the weakest public charter school law in the country.

The methodology of Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws includes scoring each state charter school law against 20 essential components from the National Alliance’s model law, including quality and accountability, equitable access to funding and facilities, and no caps on charter school growth. The model law is used to guide states that have weak or no charter law into states with strong charter laws so that they can better foster the growth of high-quality charter schools.

“We are pleased that so many states have embraced the National Alliance’s model law to improve their charter school laws, providing supportive environments for the growth of high-quality charter schools and giving hope to families who want better public educational options for their children,” said Rees.