When Betsy DeVos was Secretary of Education, she gifted the IDEA charter chain with $225 million to expand, mostly in Texas. She expected that they would flourish, especially in El Paso, where they intended to open 20 charter schools.
IDEA’s first charter school in El Paso recently held its graduation ceremonies. Only half the students who were enrolled in eighth grade remained to graduate. The others had returned to the public schools.
Claudia Lorena Silva reported in El Paso Matters about the shrinkage of the class:
As the first graduating class of IDEA Public Schools in El Paso donned caps and gowns mid-May, it was less than half the size that were in the school system in eighth grade four years earlier.
In 2021, IDEA’s first two El Paso campuses, Edgemere and Rio Vista, had a combined 256 eighth-graders, according to data from the Texas Education Agency. Four years later, 124 seniors were enrolled in IDEA’s class of 2025 at graduation time, all set to continue their education in college.
IDEA contends that students return to public schools because IDEA’s curriculum is too rigorous. But IDEA students do not consistently outperform those in public schools.
IDEA boasts that all its graduates enroll in college. They do not mention that many students attend colleges that accept all applicants.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Charter schools tend to over promise and often under deliver. Then, when public disillusionment sets in, enrollment drops or sheer reckless profiteering sets in, and they close their doors. My grandson just started his sophomore years at his public high school outside of El Paso where he is happy and doing well. Accountable public schools are more stable and unlikely to become victims of reckless market based decisions.
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Charter schools like IDEA boast that 100% of their graduates were accepted by a college.
They don’t tell you that some state colleges accept 100% of applicants.
One group of charters in Texas opened their own college, which accepts all their graduates.
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Community colleges count … as “colleges.”
The primary role of two-year public community colleges is to provide accessible and affordable higher education opportunities, primarily through associate degrees and vocational training programs, with a focus on preparing students for immediate employment or transfer to four-year institutions
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