More than 11,000 students were added to the enrollment of charter schools in Georgia in the last school year, according to a national nonprofit advocacy group.

The new report by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools estimates that an additional 348,000 attended charter schools nationally during the 2014-15 school year, compared to an increase of 288,000 students in the prior year.

Georgia added 13 charter schools compared with 14 in Tennessee and 25 in North Carolina. Tennessee had 8,800 new charter school students and North Carolina had 12,600. California led the country with 87 new charter schools and 34,500 new students.

Public charter schools are independent, public, and tuition-free schools that get freedom to innovate while being held accountable for higher achievement. The report says more than 500 new charter schools opened in the country but more than 200 closed. Nearly 2.9 million students now attend charter schools, the report says.

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