President Barack Obama is asking federal lawmakers for more money for charter schools.
In his fiscal year 2016 budget request unveiled Monday, the president is seeking an extra $120 million for federal grants for charter schools that are aimed, in part, at replicating successful school models. As my colleagues on Education Week’s federal beat write on the Politics K-12 blog, this is a “priority that both the administration and the Republican Congress share.”
The proposed increase would bring the total amount under the Charter Schools Program to $375 million. That would be a 48 percent increase over the $253.1 million included in the FY2015 Omnibus Appropriations Act, according to the Washington-based National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
“The proposed increase in the budget—through giving thousands of charter schools the funding needed to open new charter schools, and expand and replicate their successful models—will go a long way toward providing those students and their families with a much-needed, high-quality public school education,” said Nina Rees, the head of the NAPCS, in a statement.
The federal Charter Schools Program runs eight competitive grant programs to help build high-quality charter schools, replicate and expand successful ones, and reward charter and district school collaborations, among other things.
For a run-down on all things education-related in the president’s proposed budget, hop on over to the Politics K-12 blog.
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Scrapping Federally Mandated Tests Will Hurt School Choice, Advocates Say