Charter School Growth and the Evolution of Local Teacher Labor Markets

This quasi-experimental study by Lucy C. Sorenson and Stephen B. Holt examines how the removal of the cap on the number of charter schools in North Carolina affected teacher quality at traditional public schools and charter schools. The authors find that the opening of new charter schools leads to fewer early-career teachers at nearby traditional public schools; as a result, the workforce at traditional public schools is more experienced on average. However, this result does not hold when the new charter schools serve predominantly White students: when this happens, nearby public schools serving minority students lose experienced teachers.