The Center on Education Reform, known for its charter school zealotry, also promotes itself as a  repository for charter school statistics.  Given CER's double standards for education research and its hyper-spinning of charter school achievement results, it's worth looking into CER's numbers.

One key statistic is the total number of charter schools nationwide.  CER reports here that there are "nearly 4,000" charter schools. But CER's actual count, here, is 3,897.  Okay, I'll grant that it's not too much of a stretch to say 3,897 is nearly 4,000.  But is CER's 3,897 count accurate?

Maybe. Comparing CER's stats to those of the National Center for Education Statistics doesn't quite work.  NCES data shows Indianapolis having 13 charter schools in 2004-05.  Since CER is reporting later data, and since the number of charter schools is growing, it's not surprising that their number is higher.  Indeed, I get 17 when I count the charter schools on CER's map of Indianapolis.  But CER's count is even higher -- 20 -- when you put your mouse above Indianapolis on this map.  (Complicating things further is the total number of 22 charter schools, which appears above the map you get when you click on Indianapolis.  That number apparently includes three (?) schools outside of Indianapolis.)

It's quite possible I've made a counting error or there's another explanation -- two charter schools at the same map location? -- for CER's differing counts for Indianapolis.  But I'd have more faith in CER's 'rithmetic if they did a better job with their 'riting.  When you go to CER's charter school map, and put your mouse above Indianapolis, it reports 9 "elemetary" charter schools.

UPDATE: CER has a new number out just today and is now saying there are 3,940 charter schools.  Apparently, 43 charter schools opened since I checked CER's Web site this morning.  CER's amazing rate of growth -- 20 charter schools per hour -- would result in more than 200,000 charter schools by the end of next year.