“Cooperation Makes it Happen” for District and Charter Public Schools

U.S. ED Announces Race to the Top-District Consortium Webinar

Parent Demand Outpaces New Public Charter School Openings

PDK/Gallup Poll Shows the Public Favors Public Charter Schools

Across the nation, parents and guardians are demonstrating their support for public charter schools with their feet. In the last five years, the number of students who attend public charter schools has grown 100 percent—now surpassing two million students, with more than 600,000 additional students on waiting lists to attend charter schools. Further, NAPCS’s annual analysis of market share of charter schools finds more communities each year are experiencing an increase in charter school enrollment. Today, nearly 100 school districts now have at least 10 percent of their public school students enrolled in public charter schools.

Therefore, the results of the new Phi Delta Kappa (PDK)/Gallup poll that shows the public favors public charter schools by a two to one margin is not surprising. We are a bit surprised that the survey found a drop in support from 2011—but since the drop is within the margin of error, we aren’t too concerned. We know that the charter sector still has a lot of work to do to ensure that everyone understands that charter schools are tuition free, public schools. And, we must balance the results of this poll, positive or negative, with other surveys and, more importantly, what we see on the ground. The EdNext poll, for instance, shows about 40 percent of people remain undecided on their opinions of public charter schools. 

How States Address Charter School Educator Evaluation in ESEA Waivers

Graduate Programs Geared Toward Public Charter School Leaders

Cultivating Leadership in the Public Charter School Sector

The Public Charter School Talent Landscape

Race to the Top-District Applications Released

The U.S. Department of Education recently released the Race to the Top-District (RTT-D) grant application. Eligible applicants are local education agencies (LEAs) and consortia of LEAs serving a minimum of 2,000 students or fewer than 2,000 students, provided those students are served by a consortium of at least 10 LEAs and at least 75 percent of the students served by each LEA are participating in program. Also, at least 40 percent of the participating students must be from low-income families and applicants must demonstrate their commitment to the core education assurance areas. The Department is offering two technical assistance webinars on August 16th and 21st for interested applicants.

The deadline for submitting Intent to Apply statements is coming up quick–August 30th–with the full application due October 30th. Click here for more information about RTT-D. NAPCS will provide updates in the coming weeks, and you can contact me with questions.



Logo via Google Images

Advocacy Update: Protecting Charter School Teacher Retirement Funds

Over the past few months, we've been working diligently on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issue, and want to share a few key highlights:

First, in early May, attorneys at the IRS and U.S. Department of Treasury invited the National Alliance and several state-level charter support organizations to sit down and talk through our concerns.  We had an open, engaging discussion.  It felt incredibly productive, and afterwards the attorneys at the IRS and Treasury asked us to continue working with them to provide additional information about the charter sector.  We have already begun to do so – and will continue to collaborate with the IRS in the coming months.

Second, we reviewed and indexed all the public comments filed by June 18th, 2012, the close of the public comment period.  In all, 2,312 comments were filed – more than 95% from the charter sector across the country (that totals nearly 2,200 individual comments from members of the public charter school community!).  Not only did we have the opportunity to spotlight this accomplishment when we testified at the public hearing (details below), but several reporters also noted this tremendous show of force (again, see below).

Third, the IRS hosted a public hearing here in D.C. on July 9th.  I testified on behalf of the National Alliance and public charter school communities across the country.  Plus, I was lucky and thankful to be joined by David Dunn, Executive Director of the Texas Charter Schools Association, and Jill Gottfred, Policy Manager at the Illinois Network of Charter Schools.  Our individual and collective testimony was very well received.  The IRS panelists engaged each of us in a robust question and answer period, inviting each of us to provide supplemental information going forward.

Lastly, there was strong media coverage of the event, including a number of print articles.  Please see here and here for well-rounded summaries of the hearing and next steps.

Perhaps the most important information, though, is not new information.  Rather, it’s a reminder – and one the IRS panelists made special effort to note during the July 9th public hearing – that the process of finalizing these draft proposed regulations is a long one.  The currently released regulations will be reviewed; input from the public comment process will be incorporated; and, a new document will be released as the official “Notice of Proposed Regulations.”  Upon the release of this document, a new public comment period will open, and the input and review process will begin again.  Once this process culminates, the IRS will revisit the regulations one more time before issuing the final regulations.  In all, it could be – and likely will be – a long process, one which will take many, many months (possibly years) to finalize.  All to say, we’ve come a long way and we will continue to work with the IRS over the months ahead to make sure public charter school employees, both current and future, are protected.  But, the regulations will not be finalized in the short-term; as such, the eligibility of charter school employees to enroll in their respective state plans also will not change in the short-term.