Yes. In fact you don’t need the hypothesis “every atlas is a scheme”; the existence of one étale atlas by a scheme already forces the coarse moduli space to be a scheme.
Here is a convenient way to see it.
Let π: X → Y be the coarse moduli space of a separated DM stack X with finite inertia (so Y is an algebraic space).
Pick an étale atlas p: U → X with U a scheme (such an atlas always exists for a DM stack).
By the basic properties of coarse moduli spaces (Keel–Mori), the composite f: U → X → Y is locally quasi-finite and separated. One way to check this is étale locally on Y: étale locally on Y the stack X is a quotient [V/G] by a finite group G, and then U ×_Y (–) → (–) factors through V → V/G which is finite; separatedness and local quasi-finiteness descend from this local model.
Apply Zariski’s Main Theorem for algebraic spaces (Stacks Project, Tag 04S7): there exists a factorization U ↪ U' → Y where U → U' is an open immersion and U' → Y is finite. Since U → Y is surjective, the finite morphism U' → Y is also surjective.
Being finite is an affine property, and the property “is a scheme” is fpqc local on the base for affine morphisms (Stacks Project, Tag 03GN). Choose an étale (hence fpqc) cover Y0 → Y with Y0 a scheme. Then U' ×_Y Y0 is finite over Y0 and hence a scheme; by fpqc descent for affine morphisms, U' itself is a scheme.
Finally, there is a finite surjective morphism U' → Y from a scheme to the algebraic space Y. This forces Y to be a scheme (Stacks Project, Tag 03I1).
This proves that the coarse moduli space Y is a scheme. As noted, the argument only uses the existence of one scheme atlas U → X; the stronger hypothesis that every atlas is a scheme is not needed.
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version: gpt-5-2025-08-07
Status: UQ Validated
Validated: 7 months ago
Status: Needs Human Verification
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