Funding can be a key issue for alternative schools. Since the mid-90s, securing adequate funding has remained a constant battle for many charter schools throughout the country. Teacher pay, books and building maintenance are just some of the everyday issues many of these schools face as they struggle to educate students. Teaching students with fewer resources ends up making the job much more difficult on faculty, staff and students.
Alternative schools can seemingly pop up almost anywhere. They can be in strip malls, renovated buildings or even housed within a mainstream school. However, alternative schools that are standalone structures may sometimes deal with issues with certain building necessities that others may take for granted, such as adequate heat or working water fountains. While not every alternative school faces these particular issues, these are definitely problems that many of these learning institutions face around the country.
Privately run alternative schools can have unique issues. Privately run charter schools have a greater potential to close than public schools because they are subject to the ever-changing open market like any other business. Also, private charter schools tend to focus more on elementary-age students over high school students. This poses a unique problem in that at-risk teenagers are also in immediate need of the education and support services a properly run alternative school can provide.
Certain requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, a law instituted to improve the public school system, have had negative effects on both mainstream and alternative schools. One of the requirements of the law is that high schools graduate students within four years. If the school doesn't, it faces sanctions and loses out on federal money. This poses an issue for the alternative school that cater to at-risk youth. Those students are often far behind their mainstream peers in academic level. These students may need more than four years to successfully complete their degree.