A report released today suggests metro Atlanta home buyers are willing to pay a premium to live in the primary attendance zones of certain charter schools.
According to the study by the Georgia State University’s Fiscal Research Center, that willingness led to a rise in home values in those areas.
Credit: Maureen Downey
Credit: Maureen Downey
The study looked at 13 charter schools in APS, Fulton or DeKalb that set priority attendance zones, meaning seats go first to students in a specific area. If those kids don't fill the seats, enrollment expands to a second zone.
The study compared home values in the priority one and two zones and found the greater chance of gaining admission to the charter afforded in zone one raised property values.
Two of the 13 schools are conversions in which parents at an existing public school voted to embrace charter status; Kingsley Charter Elementary School in DeKalb and North Springs Charter High School in Fulton.
Some of the schools are start-ups where the parents and community members creating and petitioning for the charter defined an attendance area. They include: the Atlanta Neighborhood Charter Schools, Drew Charter and the Museum School of Avondale Estates. Also in the study are DeKalb Path Academy and the KIPP schools, which are part of national charter school network that emphasizes basics and more time on task.
The report notes these charter schools follow a similar admissions process, stating:
As charters, these schools may set enrollment caps that dictate the maximum number of students per grade level. Returning students, siblings of returning students, children of full-time employees, and children of governing board members receive first priority in allocating available slots in each grade. Remaining slots are filled by priority one attendance zone applicants, priority zone two applicants, and so on. If at any point in the process there are more applicants than available slots, then a random lottery determines which applicants receive offers of admission.
The study concludes:
This suggests households value access to charter schools and the type of neighbors located in priority one attendance zones. Traditional public schools also rely on property tax revenue for funding. These results, therefore, suggest another channel (besides competition) through which charter schools may help improve traditional public schools – increased revenue. The estimated premiums are associated with start-up and conversion charter school priority attendance zones only, with the majority of the sample consisting of start-up charters. These estimates, therefore, do not indicate anything about how households value the other unique feature of the charter landscape in Georgia – charter systems
GSU released this statement today on the study:
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