[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 141 (Friday, October 9, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12246-S12249]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION ACT OF 1998

 Mr. COATS. Mr. President, I am pleased with the passage by UC 
of the bipartisan substitute amendment to HR 2616, the Charter School 
Expansion Act. Senator Lieberman and I introduced this bill last 
November to help further expand the charter school movement which is so 
successfully providing new educational opportunities

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for children all around this country. This bill passed unanimously out 
of the Labor Committee and was unanimously approved by the Senate last 
night.
  This important bill builds upon the great success of the original 
charter school legislation which Senator Lieberman and former Senator 
Durenberger introduced in 1994. The Federal Charter School Grant 
Program provides seed money to charter school operators to help them 
pay for the planning, design and initial implementation of a charter 
school. Since this program's inception, the number of charter schools 
has tripled, with over 1100 charter schools now operating in 33 States 
and the District of Columbia.
  Charter schools are independent public schools that have been freed 
from onerous bureaucratic and regulatory burdens in order to pursue 
clear objectives and goals aimed at increasing student achievement. To 
increase student achievement, charter schools are able to design and 
deliver educational programs tailored to meet the needs of their 
students and their communities.
  It is the individualized education available to students through 
charter schools that makes this a desirable educational alternative for 
many families. Charter schools give families an opportunity to choose 
the educational setting that best meet their child's needs. For many 
low-income families in particular, charter schools provide their first 
opportunity to select an educational setting which is best suited for 
their child.
  Parents and educators have, in turn, given these programs 
overwhelmingly high marks. Broad-based studies conducted by the 
Department of Education and the Hudson Institute show that charters are 
effectively serving diverse populations, particularly disadvantaged and 
at-risk children, that traditional public schools have struggled to 
educate.
  With results like these, it is no wonder that some of the strongest 
support for charter legislation comes from low-income families. Not 
only do these parents now have real educational choices, but they are 
actually needed in the charter school environment for everything from 
volunteering to coaching, fundraising, and even teaching. This direct 
involvement of families is helping to build small communities centered 
around the school.
  Charter schools can be started by anyone interested in providing a 
quality education: Parents, teachers, school administrators, community 
groups, businesses and colleges can all apply for a charter. And, 
importantly, if these schools fail to deliver a high-quality education, 
they will be closed--either through a district or State's 
accountability measures or from lack of students. Accountability is 
literally built into the charter school process--the school must comply 
with the provisions in its charter, and unhappy parents and students 
can leave if they are not satisfied.
  Additionally, a survey conducted last fall by the National School 
Boards Association (NSBA) found that the charter movement is already 
having a positive ripple effect that is being felt in many local public 
school districts. The NSBA report cites evidence that traditional 
public schools are working harder to please local families so they 
won't abandon them to competing charter schools, and that central 
administrators often see charters as ``a powerful tool'' to develop new 
ideas and programs without fearing regulatory roadblocks.
  Several other studies have recently been released highlighting the 
success of charter schools around the country. Among other things, 
these studies have shown that charter schools have successfully met and 
surpassed the standards outlined in their charters, attracted 
significant proportions of minority and low-income students, and have 
higher parental approval rates than public schools.
  The results of these studies point to important ways to improve and 
reinvent public education as a whole. The implications from the success 
of charter schools indicate that public schools should be consumer-
oriented, diverse, results-oriented, and professional places that also 
function as mediating institutions in their communities.
  The purpose of this bill is to further encourage the growth of high-
quality charter schools around the country. This bill provides 
incentives to encourage States to increase the number of high quality 
charter schools in their State. To qualify for funding under this bill, 
States must satisfy two criteria. First, they must provide for review 
and evaluation of their charter schools by the public chartering agency 
at least once every five years to ensure that the charter school is 
meeting the terms of its charter and meeting its academic performance 
requirements. And second, States meet at least one of three priority 
criteria:
  The State has demonstrated progress in increasing the number of high 
quality charter schools that meet clear and measurable objectives for 
the educational progress of their students;
  The State provides an alternative to the local educational agency as 
the public chartering agency through either another authorized public 
chartering agency or an appeals process; or
  The State ensure that each charter school has a high degree of 
automony over the charter school's budgets and expenditures.
  These priority criteria were included to encourage States to develop 
charter school laws that promote diversified educational opportunities 
balanced with high expectations, clear objectives, and strong 
accountability measures.
  This bill continues the primary focus of charter school grants for 
the planning, design and implementation costs of new charter schools. 
This bill adds another purpose for which grants can be used by States--
States may now reserve up to 10 percent of their grant funds to support 
the dissemination activities of successful charter schools. These 
dissemination grants can go to charter school operators to help 
encourage education reform by spreading the lessons learned by 
successful charter schools and assist in the creation of new charters 
and the reform and reinvigoration of other public schools.
  To help ensure that the amount of the federal grants are proportional 
to the level of charter school activity in the State, this bill directs 
the Secretary to take into consideration the number of charter schools 
in operation, or that have been approved to open.
  During drafting of this bill, the single greatest concern I heard 
from charter school operators related to their ability to access their 
fair share of federal education funding. And so, to ensure that charter 
schools have enough funding to continue once their doors are opened, 
this bill provides that charter schools get their fair share of federal 
programs for which they are eligible, such as Title 1 and IDEA. The 
bill also directs States to inform their charter schools of any Federal 
funds to which they are entitled.
  This bill also increases the financing options available to charter 
schools and allows them to utilize funds from the Title VI block grant 
program for start-up costs.
  Because it is so important that charter schools are held accountable 
in return for the flexibility they are given from Federal, state and 
local laws and regulations, this amendment includes several significant 
provisions which strengthen accountability. First, under the priority 
criteria, States must review and evaluate their charter schools at 
least once every five years to ensure that they are meeting the terms 
of their charter and their academic performance requirements. They are 
rewarded for increasing the number of high quality charter schools that 
are ``held accountable in their charter for meeting clear and 
measurable objectives for the educational progress of their students.''
  The definitions section of the bill also stresses accountability by 
requiring a written performance contract with the authorized chartering 
agency in the State. These written performance contracts include 
clearly defined objectives for the charter school to meet in return for 
the autonomy they are given. The performance objectives in the contract 
are to be measured by State assessments and other assessments the 
charter wishes to use.
  I am confident that this amendment will build on and contribute to 
the success of the charter school movement. This bill stresses the need 
for high quality, accountable schools which are given autonomy they 
need to provide the best educational opportunity for their students.
  With the passage of this bill, a strong signal will be sent to 
parents and

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teachers all across this country that they are not alone in their 
struggle to improve education. We hope to ease their struggle by 
enabling new charter schools to be developed. More charter schools will 
result in greater accountability, broader flexibility for classroom 
innovation, and ultimately more choice in public education. I urge my 
colleagues to increase educational opportunities for all children by 
supporting this bill.
  Mr. President, I would like to thank Senator Lieberman for his 
tremendous leadership in the area of educational reform. He and I have 
worked closely on a number of issues over the last several years, and I 
want to commend him, in particular, for his strong support and 
leadership on issues concerning increasing educational opportunities 
for low-income children. He understands so clearly the fundamental 
importance of providing a high quality education in a safe environment 
to our neediest children. In addition to this charter schools bill, 
which will help to increase educational opportunities for low-income 
children, Senator Lieberman and I have worked closely for the last 4 
years to gain support for publicly-funded scholarships for low-income 
children. I want to thank him for his unwavering commitment to this 
issue and his vitally important leadership. His efforts have done much 
to win bipartisan support for both charter schools and low-income 
scholarships and I thank him for his strong commitment to our country's 
neediest children. With the passage of this charter schools bill, 
Senator Lieberman and I have the pleasure of seeing the first of our 
joint educational reform initiatives move closer to becoming law.
  Mr. President, I ask that a summary of the study results to which I 
referred be printed in the Record.
  The summary follows:

              Findings From Key Studies on Charter Schools

       The Department of Education released its first formal 
     report on its study of charter schools in May 1998. Key 
     first-year findings include:
       The two most common reasons for starting public charter 
     schools are flexibility from bureaucratic laws and 
     regulations, and the chance to realize an educational vision.
       In most states, charter schools have a racial composition 
     similar to statewide averages or have a higher proportion of 
     minority students.
       Charter schools enroll roughly the same proportion of low-
     income students, on average, as other public schools.
       The Hudson Institute has also undertaken its own two-year 
     study of charter schools, entitled ``Charter Schools in 
     Action.'' Their research team traveled to 14 states, visited 
     60 schools, and surveyed thousands of parents, teachers, and 
     students. Some of this study's key findings include:
       Three-fifths of charter school students report that their 
     charter school teachers are better than their previous 
     school's teacher.
       Over two-thirds of parents say their charter school is 
     better than their child's previous schools with respect to 
     class size, school size, and individual attention.
       Over 90 percent of teachers are satisfied with their 
     charter school's educational philosophy, size, fellow 
     teachers, and students.
       Among students who said they were failing at their previous 
     school, more than half are now doing ``excellent'' or 
     ``good'' work. These gains were dramatic for minority and 
     low-income youngsters and were confirmed by their parents.
       Most of the top charter schools are not only meeting the 
     high standards they have set for themselves, but surpassing 
     them.
 Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, last night the Senate 
unanimously approved H.R. 2616, the Charter School Expansion Act, a 
piece of legislation that Senator Coats and I, along with many others, 
have been working on for the better part of the past two years. the 
House is expected to pass this bill today under suspension and send on 
to the President, who has pledged to sign it into law.
  I rise today to express my deep appreciation to our colleagues for 
their strong bipartisan support of this bill, and to add a few brief 
words about the significance of its passage, which I am afraid may get 
lost amidst the last-minute flurry of activity this week before 
Congress adjourns.
  It would not be too difficult to overlook this legislation. Compared 
to some of the high-profile education bills we have considered 
recently, this is a modest and largely anonymous proposal, which will 
strengthen our support for charter schools and encourage states to 
create more of these innovative, independent programs. It will not fix 
all or even much of what ails our public education system. It will not 
singlehandedly sate the demands of parents for safer schools, better 
teachers, smaller classes, and smarter students. Nor will it settle the 
longstanding and often inflammatory debate over education reform that 
has divided the parties and effectively stymied the efforts of this 
Congress to respond to the public's growing concerns.
  But nevertheless, I believe that this may turn out to be one of the 
most important and constructive bills that we enact into law during 
this season. What we have agreed to do today will help take the charter 
school model from novelty to the norm in this country, and thereby 
bolster the most promising engine of education reform at work in 
America today. The Charter School Expansion Act will spur the growth of 
hundreds of high-quality and highly-accountable schools of choice, 
which in the next few years will expand the educational opportunities 
available to thousands of American children, and could over the long 
haul help to reshape the public school for the 21st Century.
  Perhaps just as noteworthy as what this legislation will do, though, 
is the simple fact that we agreed to do it. As my colleagues are well 
aware, we have struggled throughout this Congress to reach a consensus 
on how to improve our schools, fighting a series of pitched partisan 
battles that have bogged down several thoughtful proposals from both 
sides, and leaving the public to question our ability to address these 
critical issues. By adopting this bill with unanimous support, I think 
we have made an important statement that we can get things done, that 
we can find common ground to strengthen the common school. And I am 
hopeful, despite the deep policy differences still dividing many of us, 
that this bill will lay the groundwork for more bipartisan cooperation 
next year as we prepare to reauthorize the massive Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act and proceed with what may be the most 
consequential education debate of our lifetime.
  In marking this accomplishment, I want to thank Senator Coats, who I 
have had the great pleasure of working on many education reform 
initiatives over the last few years, and our fellow cosponsors, 
Senators Kerrey of Nebraska, D'Amato, and Landrieu, who made this a 
bipartisan effort from the start. I will sorely miss Senator Coats' 
partnership next year as this great education debate continues, but I 
am glad that, after many years of frustratingly close votes we have 
endured together, he can leave on a resounding note of success.
  I particularly want to thank the chairman and ranking member of the 
Labor Committee, Senators Jeffords and Kennedy, for their leadership in 
shepherding this bill to the floor. I know there were some difficult 
issues that had to be resolved to bring our proposal out of committee, 
and I am grateful to my colleagues from Vermont and Massachusetts for 
the time and energy they devoted to getting that done. We simply could 
not have beat the legislative clock were it not for their persistence 
and skilled bridge-building.
  I also want to pay tribute to our former colleague, Senator 
Durenberger, whose vision and creativity made this legislation possible 
in the first place. In 1992 and 1993, a band of pioneering teachers and 
parents in Minnesota founded the nation's first charter schools, and 
their efforts inspired Senator Durenberger to propose a national pilot 
program to help other communities around the country experiment with 
this progressive reform model. I was proud to join with Senator 
Durenberger four years ago in cosponsoring the bill authorizing this 
pilot program, now known as the Federal Charter School Grant Program. 
Congress approved this initiative with strong bipartisan majorities, 
and in the years since it has provided $75 million to help new charters 
to defray the burdensome cost of starting a school from scratch.
  Today, thanks in part to this Federal seed money, the charter school 
movement has quickly spread throughout the nation. As of this fall, 
more than 1,100 charters are operating in 26 states, including my home 
state of Connecticut, as well as the District of Columbia, quadrupling 
the number that were in business just four years ago. In the past nine 
months alone, four additional states passed new charter laws, and more 
than a half dozen

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others strengthened their laws and significantly expanded their 
programs. In California, for example, the state legislature broadly 
supported a move to raise the state cap on charters from 100 to 250 of 
this year and allow the creation of 100 additional schools each 
succeeding year. And just last month in Texas, the state board of 
education approved the creation of 85 new schools, more than doubling 
the existing number.
  This is truly a grass-roots revolution, led by parents and teachers 
and community activists, which is seeking to reinvent the public school 
and take it back to the future, reconnecting public education to some 
of our oldest, most basic values--ingenuity, responsibility, 
accountability--and refocusing its mission on doing what's best for the 
child instead of what's best for the system.
  The results so far have been quite encouring. Parents of charter 
school students overwhelmingly give their programs high marks, 
particularly for their responsiveness and the sense of community they 
foster. Also, broad-based studies done by the Hudson Institute and the 
Education Department show that charters are effectively serving diverse 
populations, especially many of the disadvantaged and at-risk children 
that traditional public schools have struggled to educate. And while 
it's too soon to determine what impact charter schools are having on 
overall academic performance, the early returns suggest that charters 
are succeeding where it matters most, in the classroom.
  A survey done last fall by the National School Boards Association 
found that the charter movement is already having a positive ripple 
effect that is being felt in many local public school districts. The 
NSBA report cites evidence that traditional public schools are working 
harder to please local families so they won't abandon them to competing 
charter schools, and that central administrators often see charters as 
a ``a powerful tool'' to develop new ideas and programs without fearing 
regulatory roadblocks.
  The most remarkable aspect of the charter movement may be that it has 
managed to bring together citizens, educators, business leaders and 
politicians from across the political spectrum in support of a mutual 
goal to better educate our children through more choice, more 
flexibility and more accountablity in our public schools. In these 
grass-roots, as I suggested above, may lie the roots of a consensus for 
renewing the promise of public education and ending the left-right 
stalemate that has too often impeded the reform debate.
  We want to build on that broad agreement at the local and state level 
and do what we can at the Federal level to support and encourage the 
growth of this movement, which is just what the legislation we approved 
today will do. It starts by revamping the charter grant program to 
focus it more on helping states and local groups create new schools and 
meet the President's goal of creating 3,000 charters by the year 2000.
  Specifically, it calls for gradually increasing the grant funding 
over the next several years, and then better targeting those additional 
dollars to the states that are serious about expanding their charter 
program. It would do so by establishng several ``priority'' criteria 
that would give preference in awarding start-up grants to those states 
that show real progress in creating high-quality, highly-accountable 
charters. Our hope is that these changes will give states that have 
been slow to embrace the charter movement an incentive to get on board. 
The intent is not to punish those states that are moving cautiously, 
but instead to reward the ones that are prepared to harness this 
progressive force for change and encourage others to do the same.
  The CSEA would also tighten some unintended loopholes in the original 
statute that have hampered the effectiveness of the program, ensure 
that charter schools receive their fair share of funding from the major 
Federal categorical grant programs, and take some initial steps to 
widen the pool of funding sources for those charters that are 
struggling to stay alive. And to enhance the potential for all children 
to benefit from charter successes, this legislation directs the 
Secretary of Education to work with the states to in effect establish 
an ``innovation pipeline'' that would share information about what is 
working in charter schools to public school districts around the 
country.
  That, in the end, is really what this bill and the charter school 
movement in general are all about, which is improving the whole of our 
public education system. As Norman Atkin, a founder and director of the 
North Star Academy Charter School in Newark, has said, charter schools 
have the potential to serve as the ``R&D arm'' of public education, 
incubating new ideas that could benefit millions of students. And in 
time hopefully every public school will put into practice the 
principles undergirding the charter model, and every public school will 
be liberated from some of the top-heavy bureaucracy that too often 
suffocates them and in turn pledge to meet high standards of 
achievement for which they will be held strictly accountable, and every 
public school will benefit from the positive forces of choice and 
competition.
  For now, we have taken an important step toward that goal today, and 
passed a piece of legislation that I am confident will make a real and 
immediate difference in the lives of many children in this country. I 
again want to thank my colleagues for their broad vote of confidence in 
the charter movement, and I look forward to working with them next year 
on new blueprint for education reform that will incorporate the 
substance and spirit of what we have achieved today.

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