Last week, Dr. Terry Stoops of the John Locke Foundation noted a steady gain in charter school attendance in the Dept. of Public Instruction report.

Check out Stoop’s newsletter here.

One part caught my eye and I think he’s spot on about the Char-Mecklenburg assignment debacle:

Charter schools are more popular in Region 6 than any other.  Region 6 includes Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Lincoln, and Iredell counties.  All three have significant shares of students who attend charter schools.  In Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Lincoln counties, 9.4 percent of the public school populations chose charter schools.  In Iredell County, it is 8.1 percent.  I suspect that new assignment policies in Mecklenburg County will be a boon for area charters, particularly among families who desire neighborhood schools.

Wake county’s school board is just as ‘diversity’ obsessed as Charlotte-Mecklenburg. So it’s maybe worth noting that Wake county saw a significant increase with a jump of around 1,000 more students since last year.

Wake’s breakdown over the last few years shows it’s been steadily ticking up as more charters in the area open up:

• 2012-13: 5,798
• 2013-14: 6,721
• 2014-15: 8,555
• 2015-16: 9,557

As I’ve noted in the past, homeschooling in North Carolina and, in particular in Wake county, is also booming.

In 2014-15, Wake county had the biggest homeschool school number in the state with 6,359. Those 6,359 schools had 10,407 students. View the 2014-15 report here and more homeschool information at the Division of Non-Public Education page.

The number of homeschools for roughly the same period, minus this years results which are not available yet. The first number is the number of schools, the second is the estimated number of students.

• 2014-15: 67,804 & 106,853
• 2013-14: 60,950 & 98,172
• 2012-13: 53,347 & 87,978
• 2011-12: 47,977 & 79,693

School choice is clearly booming in North Carolina.