What is a Charter School

Everything people think they know about charter schools, sorted out in about four minutes.

Let's start with the big one: we're a public school.

Not private. Not a magnet. Not a program you test into. Le Monde is a public school, open to any student in Oklahoma, and it's free.

We get asked otherwise constantly, usually by someone who heard it from someone. So — no tuition, no entrance exam, no attendance boundary, no application essay, no "we'll see if he's a good fit." If your kid lives in Oklahoma and you want them here, you apply.

So what makes it a charter?

The charter itself. It's a contract.

Le Monde has its own board of directors and operates under an agreement with the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board. That contract gives us room to build something specific rather than something standard — Spanish and French immersion, an IB program, a school built around a particular idea of what a kid should be able to do by the time they leave.

The trade is accountability. The contract comes up for renewal, and if we're not delivering, it doesn't get renewed. Schools have closed for less. Ours was renewed in 2026 for seven years, which is the state board's way of saying keep going.

Freedom on the front end, a real report card on the back end. That's the deal.

Myth: charter schools pick their students.

We don't. We can't. If more families apply than we have seats, we hold a lottery — names out of a hat, essentially, though the state has opinions about how the hat works. [Confirm sibling/staff preference.]

We serve students with IEPs and 504 plans, students learning English, students who arrive reading three grade levels ahead and students who arrive behind. Same law as every other public school, same obligations, same kids.

Myth: charter schools take money from "real" public schools.

We are a real public school!

Here's the plain version: Oklahoma funds schools per student. The money follows the child. It works that way whether a family moves across town, moves districts, or enrolls here.

Now the part nobody explains: buildings.

This is the actual difference between us and the district down the road, and it's not the one people expect.

Traditional districts have two pots of money. One runs the school — teachers, buses, books. The other comes from local bond issues, approved by voters and paid through property taxes, and it pays for buildings. New schools, roofs, HVAC, gyms, parking lots. That second pot is how a district builds a new high school without touching a single classroom budget.

Charter schools generally don't get that pot. We can't call a bond election.

So every dollar we spend on a building comes out of the same money that pays our teachers. A lease payment competes directly with a French teacher. It explains more about how we operate than anything else on this page — why we lease instead of own, why we share space, why we grow deliberately instead of all at once.

“Charter schools are public schools. Like district public schools, they are funded according to enrollment (also called average daily membership, or ADM), and receive funding from the district and the state according to the number of students attending.

“Unlike traditional district schools, most charter schools do not receive funding to cover the cost of securing a facility. Charter schools that are “converted” from traditional public schools begin with established capital, namely the school and its facilities, but many newly started charters struggle to come up with the necessary funds. Only a few states provide capital funding to start-up schools. Some start-up schools are able to take over available unused district space, but most rely on other, independent means. Recent federal legislation provides funding to help charters with start-up costs, but the task remains imposing.” (View reference | Just the FAQs—Charter Schools.)