WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, President Obama unveiled his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2016, which includes $375 million for the Charter Schools Program a 48 percent increase over the $253.1 million included in the FY2015 Omnibus Appropriations Act. National Alliance President and CEO Nina Rees released the following statement in response to the Presidents announcement:
“We commend President Obama and his administrations continued commitment to growing high-quality public charter schools across the United States. With this latest show of support, the Obama administration has once again recognized public charter schools as a highly valued public education option for millions of American families. We are grateful for this support and will continue to work to expand the charter school movement to both close the achievement gap and open windows of opportunities for many more students.
“Across the nation, demand for a public charter school education continues to grow. In 2014, more than a million student names nationwide were on the waiting lists for charter schools.
“The proposed increase in the budget through giving thousands of charter schools the funding needed to open new charter schools, and expand and replicate their successful models will go a long way toward providing those students and their families with a much-needed, high-quality public school education.
“While we applaud this critical budget increase, we must not forget that charter schools are still underfunded compared to traditional public schools. Research has consistently shown that charter schools despite producing strong learning gains for students still suffer from this funding inequity. We hope state legislatures will also improve funding for charter schools in state laws to ensure that more families in the United States can receive equal opportunities to send their children to high-quality public schools.”
About Public Charter Schools
Public 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, many independent research studies have found 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 Schools
The 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 visit our website at www.publiccharters.org.
