Take Action: US Dept. of Education’s Proposed Rule Limits Charter Growth

We need you to take action. The U.S. Department of Education has proposed a new rule that would limit charter growth. Specifically, the rule would make it much more difficult for public charter schools to open and operate with federal support through the Charter Schools Program (CSP). Moreover, while CSP is relatively small, its restructuring through these regulations could set a worrying precedent for charter independence.

Here are some key concerns the Coalition and others are voicing:

• Charter growth is linked to over-enrolled district schools rather than parental demand or school quality: Applicants must include a “community impact analysis” offering evidence that charter growth or expansion “does not exceed the number of public schools needed to accommodate the demand in the community.”
• Districts–rather than parents–have power over charter growth: Some grant applicants must share a letter from a district or district school expressing a commitment to collaborate.
• Regulations make it harder for majority-minority charter schools: As the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has noted, community impact rules “would make it difficult for schools that serve a high concentration of students of color to receive support, especially those schools that identify as culturally affirming.”

Read more

• View the proposed rule.
• Read a summary from the Penn Hill Group.
• Access a Flypaper blog post about the rule from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
• Read commentary from the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) or National Review.