Friday, March 1, 2013

Washington, D.C. – The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) president and CEO Nina Rees issued the following statement on the sequester, which begins today:

“I am disappointed that our leaders in Congress and the Administration were not able to reach an agreement under their self-imposed deadline to avert the sequester,” said Nina Rees, president and CEO of the NAPCS. “There is no doubt that these drastic cuts will greatly harm our public education system, for public charter schools and traditional public schools alike. 

“These cuts will have a detrimental impact on the ability of public charter schools to grow and will hurt existing charter schools’ ability to plan for the future,” said Rees. “Charter schools, especially those in the earliest stages of formation, rely heavily on the seed money provided through the federal Charter Schools Program.  In addition, any cuts to Title I and IDEA will be particularly painful, especially for the many charter schools that disproportionally serve low-income children. Charter schools already receive approximately 20 percent less funding than traditional public schools, and the more than 2.3 million students served by public charter schools cannot afford additional cuts.

“On behalf of the public charter school movement, I call on Congress and the Administration to put politics aside and work quickly to mitigate the damage the sequester will have on all public school students, including those in public charter schools.”

About the National Alliance
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) is the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the charter school movement. Our mission is to lead public education to unprecedented levels of academic achievement by fostering a strong charter sector.

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