Washington, D.C. Nina Rees, president and CEO at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released the following statement on the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015.
"We are pleased that Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) have achieved a bipartisan agreement to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. We strongly support the bills requirement that states continue to administer annual statewide assessments for grades 3-8 in reading and math and once in high school. We also support provisions in the bill that require the transparent reporting of disaggregated data, and achievement goals designed to ensure that all groups of students graduate from high school prepared for postsecondary education or the workforce. The bill also modernizes the Charter Schools Program (Title V), ensuring the opening of new charter schools, the replication and expansion of the most successful of charter school models, and support for facility financing and authorizer quality. We applaud the committee for strengthening this program that has been critical to the growth of charter schools nationwide.
"We look forward to working with the Committee to ensure that the current law requirement that accountability must be overseen for charter schools in accordance with state charter school law is included in the bill. In addition, we wish to ensure that charter school leaders are consulted in all ESEA programs in the same manner required for other key stakeholders, and to enable states and districts to use of Title I funds for comprehensive, student-focused improvement strategies within school districts, such as opening new and expanding high quality charter schools.
"We are hopeful that the Senate HELP Committee will report out this legislation on a bipartisan basis, and move the bill promptly to the Senate floor."
About Public Charter Schools
Public charter schools are independent, public, and tuition-free schools that are given the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. Since 2010, many independent research studies have found that students in charter schools do better in school than their traditional school peers. For example, one study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University found that charter schools do a better job teaching low income students, minority students, and students who are still learning English than traditional schools. Separate studies by the Center on Reinventing Public Education and Mathematica Policy Research have found that charter school students are more likely to graduate from high school, go on to college, stay in college and have higher earnings in early adulthood.
About the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the public charter school movement. Our mission is to lead public education to unprecedented levels of academic achievement by fostering a strong charter sector. For more information, please visit our website at www.publiccharters.org.