Citing an article in Education Week, The National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers College notes that charter school growth is slowing.
“Charter school growth is slowing down, reported Education Week. The decline since 2012, when 640 new charters opened, has been steady. In 2013, 501 new charters were launched; in 2014, 404; and in 2015, 329. Citing a study by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, the newspaper noted that large charter authorizers have seen a marked drop in charter applications, from an average of 18 in the 2011-12 school year to 7 in the 2015-16 school year.
“One explanation offered by Education Week for the slowdown is that national charter management organizations (CMOs) “may have reached capacity.” In addition, it should be pointed out that charter schools have run into mounting resistance, as illustrated by the NAACP’s call for a moratorium on charter school growth in October 2016 and by the decisive rejection a month later of a referendum in Massachusetts to lift the cap on charter schools, with 62 percent of voters opposing the measure and 38 percent supporting it.
“Yet while the number of new charter schools has ebbed, total enrollment in charter schools continues to climb, especially in such states as Minnesota, reported The Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Although enrollment in traditional district schools grew by 2 percent over the past five years, stated the newspaper, enrollment in charter schools ballooned. More specifically, there were 41,604 students in Minnesota charter schools in 2012-13 and 53,960 in 2016-17. Grade additions in existing charter schools may explain much of this growth. New charter schools would explain the remainder.”
Another possibility is that parents are wishing up and realizing that the charters have no secret sauce, perform no miracles, and lack many of the programs in the public schools. They may have also experienced high teacher turnover in charters or seen the instability of charters, which open and close at will.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Other trends within the same data:
Add the fewer “new openings” and subtract the more “annual closings” and the absolute operating number is also leveling off.
Inside enrollment are all the “add one grade at a time” schools that will continue to act like a bow wave despite the leveling off of operating schools number.
All that stimulus for new schools from Obama years chasing fewer “new school founders” and fantasy projections from Devos team just denial of this reality.
Expect the federal program to be re-written so that the funds can go to For profit chains and any school pursuing charter amendments for new campus or new grades inside existing schools.
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I knew reality had hit in Ohio when the Columbus Dispatch started reporting on charter schools in the state. There was no bigger charter cheerleader than the Dispatch. They were a huge contributor to the mess in the first place because they bought the whole sales pitch without ANY analysis. They were a year behind every other newspaper in the state but they got there, kicking and screaming, because it could no longer be denied.
The disconnect between the national charter narrative and the in-state reality was and remains jarring. I was reading about actual charters in Ohio papers WHILE the Obama, Kasich and Trump Administrations were conducting “public schools suck! charter schools rock!” tours based on theoretical charters. It was unreal.
The Obama Administration awarded a huge charter grant to the state WHILE local newspapers were doing this! A complete disconnect. Two tracks that never intersected.
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Charter schools are NOT democratic. I was thinking about FAMILY VALUES and have come to the conclusion that if people really embraced FAMILY VALUES, they wouldn’t embrace religious schools and charter schools. FAMILY VALUES mean that the FAMILY (parents, grandparents, etc.) are the ones who pass on FAMILY VALUES, NOT charter and religious schools. How can people turn this over to others? DUH.
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Hopefully Trump and DeVose won’t facilitate a spike in the opposite direction
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We can expect an exodus of public school students, but more likely more of an exodus of public money, if DeVos and Trump open the flood gates for vouchers. Many parents that already have their children in private school will use vouchers to supplement their tuition payments. As the research indicates, none of this improves outcomes for poor, struggling students. It simply does more harm to public schools than benefit to students.
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I wish we were saying the same here in NYC, where Success Academy continues to grow like a plague of locusts. We drove through the Hudson Yards area over the weekend. There are many huge luxury residential buildings under construction. Over one scaffolding there was an advertisement for one of these luxury residences. Then, over that advertisement was another one for Success Academy Hudson Yards. The audacity of Eva Moskowitz knows no bounds. It’s sickening.
I have also seen in the subway the advertisements the former Success Academy teacher was mocking. They are in the vicinity of this Hudson Yards development. I find it curious that they present themselves as a progressive school, when reports out of that organization say the contrary.
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All that advertising for Success Academy indicates that she has no waiting list.
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