Broad Coalition Urges Congress to Fund All Public School Students Fairly

Patricia Levesque, CEO of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, issued the following statement:

“Today, a broad coalition of 70 organizations from across the country sent a letter to Congressional leadership and respective members of Congress, urging they treat all public school students equally by restoring the education funding cut in the Charter School Program fund, and eliminating language that could especially harm public school students with special needs and low-income students who attend charter schools.”

Read the full letter below.

July 26, 2021

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McCarthy, Leader Schumer, and Leader McConnell:

For the past 18 months, students across the country have had their learning disrupted, impacting every student differently, which is why Congress should not pass a budget that risks further disrupting learning by removing basic funding for public school students. The current House Appropriations budget for the fiscal year 2022 cuts education funding to more than 3.3 million students across the country who choose a public charter school to fulfill their learning needs – and each of those students is no less important than any other student.

It is for this reason that Congress must reject efforts to cut federal funding to public charter schools and treat all public school students equally. Moreover, Congress must reject efforts to financially punish special needs students and students living in poverty, simply because their families decided their children should attend a different public school.

The FY22 budget, approved by the House Appropriations Committee, cuts education funding at a time when students need more support, not less. The American Rescue Plan demonstrated significant support for education by providing states and school districts with access to $125 billion in new funding. Now, this House budget moves the country backward, removing $40 million from the federal Charter Schools Program, a vital source of support for these public schools.

Even more alarming, the House version of the FY22 budget includes a discriminatory clause in the bill that would prevent any federal funds from reaching any charter school “that contracts with a for-profit entity to operate, oversee or manage the activities of the school.”

This language, which is clearly politically motivated, simply penalizes all public school students. Separating out and dividing public school students—treating their funding differently based on the type of public school they choose and then punishing students who choose to attend one type over another—sends a message that the federal government doesn’t believe all public school students are equal.

Public charter schools overwhelmingly serve some of the nation’s poorest students, 68.7 percent of whom are students of color, an estimated 1.2 million students who are at or below federal poverty guidelines, plus another 300,000 students with special needs or a disability that qualifies under the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Under the proposed House FY22 Budget, these—our most vulnerable students–would be at risk of losing access to vital financial support. This is indefensible.

This agenda-driven budget prioritizes politics over people, and systems over students. We urge our members of Congress to reject this language, restore the federal funding to the Charter School Program fund and treat all public school students equally.

Keep in mind that public demand for education options is at an all-time high. Learning models that embrace innovation, flexibility and a robust suite of options are key factors for achieving a student-centered education system. It’s a formula that works. Just this year, a University of Arkansas study found that, “higher levels of education freedom are significantly associated with higher NAEP achievement levels and higher NAEP achievement gains.”

Where state and local governments support multiple school options, all students win. We see this in Arizona, where students are seeing higher-than-average gains on annual assessments. And we see this in New York City and Massachusetts, where Temple University and MIT have published studies that describe positive effects of public charter schools: The closer a public charter is located to a traditional public school, the better the learning gains for students.

Every student is deserving of an education that enables them to succeed, and that is why we believe the language in this House Appropriations approved budget bill is particularly harmful – by defunding charter schools it hurts all children.

We urge you to reject legislation that cuts and restricts funding to the public charter sector and disrupts the education of charter students nationwide.

Sincerely,