Starting at the top
Last week, President Biden released his fiscal year 2024 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education, which included some good news and bad news for charter schools. An overall increase in K-12 funding (including additional resources to help schools address lingering pandemic-era academic and mental health issues) and some improved spending flexibility for Charter Schools Program (CSP) grants are among the good news items. The bad? Flat funding for CSP. Wrangling will likely ensue as the budget wends its way through Congress.
And in Ohio…
Education provisions in House Bill 33, legislation establishing Ohio’s budget for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, were debated in a House subcommittee this week. The Fordham Institute was among the voices providing proponent testimony to lawmakers, supporting proposals which would provide more per pupil and facilities funding for charters. More debate will follow in the coming weeks.
The view from New York – Albany style
A proposal from Governor Hochul to lift the cap on the number of charter schools allowed to open in New York City was among several budget items rejected by the state legislature this week. The battle is not over, because there is more negotiation on the budget bill ahead. Crystal McQueen-Taylor, Chief Advocacy Officer of StudentsFirstNY, talked about the prospects for victory in the Empire State as a guest on the Education Gadfly Show podcast.
The view from New York – NYC style
Not surprisingly, given the ongoing wrangling in Albany, New York City’s Success Academy was also in the news this week. A new study from the high-performing charter operator provided more evidence that charter schools not only cause little or no financial or educational decline in traditional district schools near them, and that per-pupil spending and student achievement may actually improve as charter competition increases. Meanwhile, Success Academy’s CEO Eva Moskowitz penned a piece on the importance of “student effort” in reducing needless errors in their work and how her teachers work to model and reinforce “effort” as a means for students to clearly show what they know. An excellent read.
Better news from the Mountain State
The West Virginia Senate passed SB 47 this week. Among other things, the bill creates a first-of-its kind Charter Schools Stimulus Fund. If signed into law by Governor Justice, the fund would allow state money as well as “grants, gifts and donations from any public or private source” to be used to help new charter schools in covering vital start-up costs. The vote was 62-36.
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