The Role of Charter Schools in Latine Communities on Chicago’s Southwest Side

Introduction

Author: Jacob Flores

Department: UIC Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement

Advisor: Dr. Joseph K. Hoereth, IPCE

Abstract: Charter school proliferation in Chicago has disproportionately concentrated in communities of color, with predominantly Latine communities on the city's Southwest Side emerging as one of its most significant contexts. The resulting expansion has fundamentally reshaped the educational landscape of these communities in ways that both reflect and reinforce broader patterns of neoliberal education reform. This research interrogates the structural nature of charter school proliferation, examining the effects of market logic on governance, accountability, and access in order to understand how and why it has reshaped educational outcomes and community stability across ten predominantly Latine community areas on Chicago's Southwest Side. Drawing on a systematic literature review of academic journals, government reports, and investigative sources from 2007 to 2025, GIS mapping of charter school locations overlaid on Latino population data, a case study analysis of the UNO/Acero charter network, and qualitative evidence drawn from CPS Board of Education public comment testimony, this research examines whether market-based reform has delivered equitable and sustainable outcomes for the communities it claims to serve. Findings indicate that the structural features of the charter model, including reduced public oversight, cost-containment management strategies, and selective enrollment/retention practices, produce patterns of instability, inequitable access, and financial misuse. The Acero Schools network illustrates how a model premised on community responsiveness can, through the logic of market reform, produce the very instability and disinvestment it was designed to remedy. Throughout cycles of expansion and closure, affected Latine communities exercised limited formal power over decisions shaping their educational landscape. These findings demonstrate that education reform is fundamentally political, shaped by how problems are defined, which outcomes are prioritized, and whose communities bear the consequences. This research recommends strengthening financial oversight, reforming charter enrollment practices, internalizing the social costs of closure, and reorienting public investment toward equitable, place-based community school models.

Keywords: charter schools, neoliberal education reform, Latine communitie