National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Finds that Over a Two-Year Period, 23 State Charter School Laws Are Improved and One New State Charter School Law is Enacted, Often With Bipartisan Support
WASHINGTON, D.C.-According to figures released today by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), 23 states strengthened their existing charter school laws and one state enacted a new charter school law since January 2011. These state legislatures improved their charter school laws often times through bipartisan support by lifting caps restricting charter growth, providing more equitable funding and facilities support, and enacting new authorizing and accountability measures. Twenty years after Minnesota opened the nations first charter school, 41 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws allowing charter schools. These legislative enactments have allowed more than 5,600 charter schools to open to serve more than two million students.
The charter school sector has seen strong growth more recently, with 400 to 500 new charters opening each year with 180,000 to 200,000 new students enrolling. “Its encouraging that so many states are significantly strengthening their charter school laws, responding directly to the demand from families for quality public school choice in their communities,” said Todd Ziebarth, NAPCS Vice President for State Advocacy and Support. The continuing success of the charter school movement relies on high-quality schools being allowed to operate across the nation. Policymakers are seeing charter schools as a solution, and were seeing their legislative efforts reflect this perspective. Since 2011, 12 states either partially or entirely lifted their caps prohibiting charter school growth. Most notably, North Carolina eliminated its cap of 100 charter schools, Michigan phased out its cap on the number of charter schools that can be approved by public universities, and Indiana and Wisconsin removed limits on virtual charter enrollment. Meanwhile, Maine became the 42nd jurisdiction to enact a charter law in 2011, passing one of the strongest charter laws in the nation.
Additionally since 2011, 12 states took steps to provide more equitable charter school funding and facilities support. These changes are critical since charter school students only receive about 75 percent of the funding compared to their traditional public school counterparts at the national level. Indiana, for example, enacted legislation to create a charter school facilities assistance program to make grants and loans to charter schools (and appropriates $17 million for this effort), and require school districts to make vacant space available to charter schools at a nominal cost. Also, Texas enacted a law that allows state-authorized charter schools meeting certain financial criteria to apply to have their bonds guaranteed by the states Permanent School Fund. Fourteen states also took steps to strengthen charter school authorizing and accountability. Most significantly, four states created new, independent statewide charter authorizers, while Hawaii, New Mexico and Rhode Island passed major quality control measures setting the stage for the future growth of high-quality public charter schools.
Furthermore, in Georgia, where a 2011 state Supreme Court ruling abolished the statewide charter authorizer, both the states House and Senate passed legislation in favor of a bipartisan constitutional amendment that would allow the statewide charter authorizer to be reinstated an effort that required over two-thirds majorities in each chamber. The proposed amendment will now go before Georgia voters in November.
In addition to these legislative advancements, efforts are underway to enact charter laws in the nine states that still do not allow charter schools, sometimes with bipartisan support. “The efforts of the last two years have resulted in numerous positive policy changes that will lead to a stronger charter movement”, said Ursula Wright, interim president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. While there is still a lot of work to do, we are excited by the positive progress that has taken place in recent years.
Charter schools are tuition-free public schools allowed the freedom to be more innovative, while being held accountable for improved student achievement. These open enrollment schools foster a partnership between parents, teachers and students that lead to improved results. Public charter schools enroll five percent of the nations public school students, and the movement has seen steady rising growth since its inception twenty years ago. Today, over two million students are enrolled in public charter schools. To celebrate this years 20th anniversary of the public charter school movement, NAPCS will host the 2012 National Charter Schools Conference, June 19-22 in Minneapolis, MN, featuring keynote speakers Dr. Bill Cosby and Dr. Deborah Kenny, founder and CEO of Harlem Village Academies.
About the National Alliance
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the 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 atwww.publiccharters.org
