By Martha Woodall, Inquirer Staff Writer
Talk about pent-up demand.
After the Philadelphia School District announced that it would accept applications for new charter schools for the first time in seven years, it received 40, the district said Monday.
If the School Reform Commission approves them all, the schools eventually could add 40,341 more seats in charter schools in a district that already has 67,000 – or more than one-third – of its students enrolled in charters.
The vast majority of the proposals – 29 – were from operators of existing charters in the city, including KIPP Philadelphia, Freire, Mastery, MAST, Global Leadership, Franklin Towne, Independence, and Green Woods.