Newark’s public schools are slated to return to local control: the demise of its thriving charter sector a likely end result

After more than two decades of state supervision, Newark’s public schools are slated to return to local control. When the state hands the keys back to the city, local leaders will inherit a district that’s in a fundamentally different position than it was in 1995, the year the state took over.

Back in 1995, Newark Public Schools (NPS) ran all of the city’s schools. The first charter school in Newark wouldn’t open until 1997. But today, charter schools enroll about 30 percent of Newark’s students citywide, making Newark one of the nation’s several “high-choice” cities: places where charter schools are in the mainstream, not on the margin.

Read more in EducationNext.