EXCLUSIVE: ESSA and Charter Schools: Part 7
EXCLUSIVE: Lamar Alexander’s Staff Explains ESSA: PART 1 | Diane Ravitch's blog http://bit.ly/1QlmO8K
EXCLUSIVE: Senator Alexander’s Staff: ESSA and Teacher Evaluation, Part 2 | Diane Ravitch's blog http://bit.ly/1RzT9Kj
EXCLUSIVE: What Does ESSA Say About Bottom 5% of Schools: Part 3 | Diane Ravitch's blog http://bit.ly/1SzGMOp
Big Education Ape: EXCLUSIVE: How Does ESSA Affect Opt Outs? Part 4 | Diane Ravitch's blog http://bit.ly/23jA1V1
Big Education Ape: EXCLUSIVE: ESSA and Special Education: Part 5 | Diane Ravitch's blog http://bit.ly/1RFlWwU
Big Education Ape: EXCLUSIVE: How Does ESSA Affect Teacher Education? Part 6 | Diane Ravitch's blog http://bit.ly/1RH715n
This is the seventh in a series of exchanges about the new federal law, the Every Student Succeeds Act. I asked the questions, and David P. Cleary, chief of staff to Senator Lamar Alexander, answered them.
Does the law impose any requirements on charter schools regarding funding, selection of students, financial transparency, or accountability?
Short Answer:
Sen. Alexander has been a long-time advocate of charter schools. In his last act as Secretary of Education in 1993, he wrote a letter to all of the nation’s superintendents encouraging them to look at the idea of creating charter schools like those started in Minnesota.
The Every Student Succeeds Act makes several updates to the federal public charter school program to modernize the program and ensure public charter schools are held to the same standards as other public schools. The charter school program provides federal grants to support the creation of new charter schools, and the new law is updated to also allow such grants to support the replication and expansion of high-quality charter schools. The bill also includes important changes to eliminate barriers to enrollment for some students, increase charter school financial transparency, and include charter schools in the state accountability system in the same way that traditional schools are included.
Long Answer:
Funding: The law continues support for the competitive grant program for grants to states and other state entities for the purposes of opening new, or replicating or expanding high-quality charter schools, and to provide technical assistance to improve the quality of authorized public chartering agencies (including developing capacity for and conducting fiscal oversight and auditing of charter schools). The new law also continues support for the facilities grants programs to enhance the availability of loans or bond financing for charter schools since so many charter schools are denied access to the capital budget of state or local school construction and financing. We also focus efforts at the federal level to make competitive grants to replicate and expand high-quality charter schools to try to build on their success.
Funding in the latest appropriations bill for all of these activities was $333 million.
Selection of students: The new law requires grantees to “work with EXCLUSIVE: ESSA and Charter Schools: Part 7 | Diane Ravitch's blog: