Washington, D.C. Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, released the following statement supporting Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposed legislation that would add 12 new charter schools in Massachusetts every year outside of the existing caps:
“We commend Gov. Baker for taking this important step toward increasing the number of high-quality public charter schools in Massachusetts and giving parents more public school choice options. Massachusetts imposes the most restrictive artificial caps on the growth of public charter schools despite having the highest quality charter schools in the nation. This bill recognizes the problematic nature of these caps and seeks to meet the increasing parental demand for more high-quality education options for students.
“Throughout Massachusetts, 37,000 students sit on public charter school wait lists. In Boston alone, there are 13,000 names on wait lists, more than the number of students attending charter schools (see report here). Nationwide, there are over one million names on public charter school wait lists.
“We urge the Massachusetts legislature to support the governor’s bill.”
Last month, the National Alliance issued a statement on a class-action lawsuit that seeks to lift the states caps on the number of publiccharter schools in Massachusetts. Read the statement here.
About Public Charter SchoolsPublic charter schools are independent, public, and tuition-free schools that are given the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. Since 2010, manyresearch studieshavefound that students in charter schools do better in school than their traditional school peers. For example, one study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University found that charter schools do a better job teaching low income students, minority students, and students who are still learning English than traditional schools. Separate studies by the Center on Reinventing Public Education and Mathematica Policy Research have found that charter school students are more likely to graduate from high school, go on to college, stay in college and have higher earnings in early adulthood.
About the National Alliance for Public Charter SchoolsThe National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the public charter school movement. Our mission is to lead public education to unprecedented levels of academic achievement by fostering a strong charter sector. For more information, please visitwww.publiccharters.org.
