“We don’t put a cap on graduation rates…”

Consistent with previous speeches voicing strong support for public charter schools, Secretary Duncan on Monday reiterated the call for state governments to lift caps on charter schools saying, “We don’t put a cap on graduation rates. We don’t say ‘We have reached our goal of 20% graduation so we don’t need to graduate more kids.' In the same sense we should not limit charter schools.” 

During a conference call with reporters, Duncan explained that states looking to gain access to stimulus funds had better be charter-friendly. This could be bad news for Maine, where a new charter law was just struck down, and Tennessee where the environment for charters is less than friendly. (Check out this list of states with caps.)

There are many takes on the call including support from this charter parent, headlines from these news sources and discussions in blog land (This Week in Education, Gotham Schools). 

Our take? We like this part of Duncan’s message, “We want real autonomy for charters combined with a rigorous authorization process and high performance standards.” We can’t say it enough ourselves. Education dollars should be used to promote innovation combined with real accountability and real autonomy.