75 Of Voters ALSO Support Obamas Call to Lift Charter School Caps
Washington DC President Barack Obamas call on states to lift the limits restricting the growth of public charter schools is supported by nearly three out of four voters (74) according to a national opinion poll recently conducted for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and released today.
The poll also found strong support for the Presidents overall plan to reform education (81) and specific elements of that plan such as rewarding good teachers with more money for improved student performance (87) funding programs to replicate successful charter schools (82) and creating Promise Neighborhoods" that use charter schools as the centerpiece of integrated services ensuring safe and healthy student development (83).
There are an estimated 365000 students on waiting lists for public charter schools around the country many of whom would be in a charter school today if their state did not arbitrarily set a cap on the number of schools allowed to operate" said Nelson Smith President and CEO of the Alliance. The Presidents call to lift restrictions on charter school growth and the strong public support for this action ought to motivate each of the 26 states with caps to re-evaluate their restrictions."
The full poll is available at
www.publiccharters.org/Poll2009. See
www.publiccharters.org/CapsonCharterSchools for a complete list of states with charter school caps.
Additionally the poll results show large margins of public endorsement for many key elements of the charter school model. These include such things as holding students teachers and parents accountable for improving student achievement" (93 and giving schools more autonomy in exchange for greater accountability for improved student achievement" (83).
The poll was conducted by the Glover Park Group for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. It surveyed 800 registered voters between March 17 and March 22 2009. The margin of error on a sample size of 800 is /-3.5.
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools President and CEO Nelson Smith made the following statement recently concerning the Presidents budget proposal for education and public charter schools in FY 2010:
President Obama has taken a strong first step toward fulfilling his campaign promise to double federal funding for public charter schools. His budget calls for $52 million in new funds for the Charter Schools Program the State Facilities Incentive Grants and the Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities Program.
This increased funding a 25 increase over Fiscal 2009 will provide new resources to start up high-quality public charter schools and help them deal with the difficulties of accessing capital support at the state level. We appreciate the strong statement the President is making here with a large increase in charter school funding at a time when resources are tight. We understand that President Obama expects great things from high-quality charter schools and we look forward to surpassing those expectations.
In the Office on Innovation and Improvement the charter programs received the second largest increase of all programs a signal of their importance to the President. The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) received a substantial increase as well increasing funding from $97 million to $717 million. Of that $517 million will be competitively granted out to eligible entities including charter school LEAs. In a time when so many of our schools are seeking to create innovative pay systems to reward excellent teachers this new investment will help solidify existing programs seed new ones and research the effects of performance-based compensation.
Additionally we are very pleased that $10 million was added this year for the Presidents Promise Neighborhoods Initiative based on the success of the Harlem Childrens Zone (HCZ) and the public charter schools operating there. Grants will be made to non-profit community-based organizations to develop programs that address the needs of children in poverty from birth to college. We expect that many charter school operators will be able to replicate the success of HCZ around the country as a result of this funding."
