Washington, D.C.- Earlier this week, the House Appropriations Committee released its draft fiscal year (FY) 2019 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS) funding bill, which includes a $50 million increase for the Charter Schools Program (CSP). This would bring the total funding for CSP to $450 million in FY 2019. The full House Appropriations committee will consider the Labor-HHS Appropriations Bill next week, and the Senate will consider their version of the bill.
National Alliance President and CEO Nina Rees released the following statement in response to the draft funding bill:
“As we prepare to head to Austin to celebrate and recognize the achievements of the charter school community, we applaud the subcommittee’s recommendation to increase funding to this important sector of the public education landscape. Recent surveys show that five million additional students would attend a charter school if one were available and convenient to them. These resources will help meet parent demand by enabling additional high-quality public charter schools to open, expand, and replicate. We are grateful to Chairman Cole, Ranking Member DeLauro, and members of the committee for their commitment to funding CSP and look forward to the day when every student in the country has access to a high-quality education.”
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 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 www.publiccharters.org.
