The upcoming months hold two of the most significant opportunities for the public charter school sector to collectively work to strengthen the quality of our sector and share its accomplishments – National Charter Schools Week and the National Charter Schools Conference. As we continue to gear up for these events, here are some of our focus areas over the past month:
Federal Advocacy
NAPCS continues to work with every branch of the federal government to increase public charter school support and statutory recognition. We produced an Annual Performance Report that provides year one Race to the Top state summaries, are working with Congress to secure favorable treatment of public charter schools within Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization, and are advocating for increased funding for the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP). We also regularly post advocacy updates on our efforts to work with the IRS to amend their recently issued Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would force states to prohibit charter school teachers from participating in state retirement plans. We’ve had tremendous response from the charter field as well as federal decision makers. For the most updated information on this issue and templates for state outreach, please visit our website.
State Policy Efforts
NAPCS continues to actively work with on-the-ground partners to advance public charter school policy environments in several states. We gained ground in Virginia and Kentucky during their legislative sessions, and partnerships with policy stakeholders inAlabama, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, and New Jersey remain active.
Data Dashboard Resources
We’ve posted a new interactive data tool that lets you explore changes in the number of charter schools and students enrolled in charter schools operated by management organizations. Our new data table is an update to our Details from the Dashboardreport on CMOs and EMOs with data from the 2010-2011 academic year.
