June 22, 2011
DFER STATEMENT ON H.R. 2218 - THE "EMPOWERING PARENTS THROUGH QUALITY CHARTER SCHOOLS ACT"
H.R. 2218 - "EMPOWERING PARENTS THROUGH QUALITY CHARTER SCHOOLS" - IS A GOOD START
BUT CLOCK IS TICKING ON OTHER ESSENTIAL - AND OVERDUE - EDUCATION REFORMS
Democrats for Education Reform strongly supports the bipartisan Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act (H.R. 2218) that will be marked up today in the House Education and Workforce Committee. H.R. 2218 includes important provisions that allow high-quality public charter schools to serve more students and that incentivize states to expand and replicate high-performers. The bill also rightly compels states to ensure that public charter schools meet their obligations to English Language Learners and students with disabilities, and makes important improvements with regard to reporting, oversight, and accountability.
"Right now in Atlanta, thousands of public charter school parents, teachers, and administrators from across the country are sharing what they have learned and charting their course for the future," said Charles Barone, DFER Director of Federal Policy about the National Charter Schools Conference where President Clinton, who signed the first federal charter school bill into law in 1994, spoke yesterday and was given a hero's welcome.
"The charter school movement is made-up of the most can-do, have done, group of parents, teachers, and school reformers you're ever likely to meet. Only the wrong-headed or hard-hearted would do anything other than give them as much help and support as humanly possible."
We are disappointed that the bill lowers the authorized funding levels for federal charter schools programs from the $450 million level in current law. We do, however, appreciate that the $300 million authorization in H.R. 2218 is at least higher than the current $256 million in actual funding. While it would take a much higher increase to serve all children across the country who are on charter school waiting lists, we appreciate this small step forward and hope to work with Congress throughout the legislative process to ensure that we do as much as possible to reach our shared goal of giving all parents the first public school of their choice.
We do have some additional concerns that we believe should be addressed as the bill makes its way through the legislative process.
Our main concern with H.R. 2218 is with regard to the uneven quality of state charter school authorizers. The bill itself recognizes this issue, as improving the authorization process is one of its main goals. We likewise have serious doubts about the ability or willingness of some states to monitor and maintain the quality of charter schools that receive grants through this bill, at least until its provisions take full effect.
For example, in Ohio, long known as the "wild west" of charter school authorizing, the GOP legislature is pushing policies that focus mainly on expansion and that allow chronically low-performing charter schools to continue to operate. We are seeing a similar lack of oversight in other states. This is an injustice to children and a disservice to taxpayers, especially in this time of scarce state and local education funding.
It should be remembered that it was the U.S. Congress and President Obama that in 2010 first set aside $50 million to fund the expansion and replication of high-quality public charter schools. The result is that barely a year later, 76,000 more students attend 127 new and 31 expanded public charter schools in a dozen charter school networks nation-wide. In contrast, there is nothing in HR 2218 that really requires any state to pay much more than lip service to high-quality charter expansion and replication. We hope that, as the bill moves forward, Congress reconsiders the possibility of maintaining the national competition approach given its demonstrated success and integrity.
Also, while we are strong supporters of high-quality charter schools, we do not believe that they are the only or even the primary means for ensuring that every child in the U.S has the opportunity to a high-quality education. In fact, we think game-changing, systemic reform can only come about through a combination of strategies that include: raising academic standards, improving assessments, overhauling teacher preparation, establishing rigorous teacher evaluation policies, reforming tenure, and providing bonus pay to teachers who teach in high need schools and subjects and rewarding those who are most effective in educating the most at-risk students.
It is for these reasons that we are disappointed in the House's slow pace on reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act/No Child Left Behind. After more than 9 years of inaction, we Congress to redouble its efforts to comprehensively update and modernize federal education policy via a full ESEA/NCLB reauthorization bill before the end of the 112th Congress.