— One year after North Carolina charter schools hit an enrollment high of more than 100,000 students, they are now "quickly approaching" a new milestone – opening the 200th charter school in the state, according to Dave Machado, director of North Carolina's Office of Charter Schools.

Machado presented the latest charter schools annual report at the State Board of Education meeting Wednesday. The report showed charter school enrollment in North Carolina has increased more than 200 percent in the past 10 years.

Charters, which are publicly funded and privately run schools, have been booming in North Carolina with more than 109,000 students currently enrolled at 184 schools across the state. Last year, the state received 35 applications to open new charter schools. Twenty-two new charters are currently in a planning year/ready-to-open process.

Meanwhile, traditional public schools, which still educate the vast majority of students in North Carolina, have continued to see their numbers drop.

The Wake County Public School System planned to enroll 1,900 new students this school year but only grew by 42 students, or roughly two classrooms. A Wake schools' spokeswoman attributed the slowdown to fewer children being born in Wake County, the aging of the county's population and parents having more school choices, including charter schools.

Charters first opened in North Carolina two decades ago. Since then, state funding for them has grown from about $16.5 million in 1997, when there were 34 schools, to more than $580 million last school year. Of the $8.93 billion in state funding for public education last school year, 6.5 percent was allotted to charter schools.