Senators Propose Bill To Loosen Charter School Money Stream
From Forbes. The charter lobby was unhappy with tightened restrictions on the federal charter school grant program. Now some of their friends are trying to loosen up that money flow again.
Eight senators have proposed a bill that would make it easier for money to flow from the federal grant program for charter schools.
The federal Charter Schools Program (CSP) was founded in 1994; since then the program has dispensed an estimated $4 billion taxpayer dollars to support expansion and development of charter schools, not always resulting in useful outcomes.
What’s in the bill?
S.3072 expands the allowable uses of the grant money to include “locating and accessing a facility” and “funding a revolving loan or similar mechanism for expenses.”
A big addition included in the bill is an expansion of CSP grant eligibility. The bill would authorize “pre-charter planning subgrants” of up to $100,000—grants given to a charter school developer that has not even submitted an application for their plan to be authorized.
These charter school dreams must meet two criteria. First, they must be led by someone with at least 54 months of “school-based experience” and who has “demonstrated leadership competencies and success with students.” The bill includes no requirements that such experience come from a public, private or charter school. The bill is being touted as a way to empower teachers to start their own charter schools, but it’s clear that the language of the bill allows a far broader category than “teachers” to apply for a grant. It would allow charter schools to expand by using current staff to “lead” the establishment of a new charter.
Second, the charter developer should have developed a “description of the educational needs of the community” in which they hope to operate, and some explanation of how the charter school will meet those needs. There is no requirement that the plan be developed by actual survey of the community.
The new rules would mean a bigger payday for the state entity managing the CSP grant.