[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 7, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2787-S2788]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         EXPANDING OPPORTUNITY THROUGH QUALITY CHARTER SCHOOLS

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I am here to support the introduction 
of a bill I am cosponsoring, the Expanding Opportunity Through Quality 
Charter Schools Act.
  Charter schools are about freedom for teachers, choices for parents, 
and more and better opportunities for students.
  I gave the weekly address for the Republican Party on Easter weekend, 
and I said that, instead of mandating tasks for you to do, government 
should enable you to create a happier, safer, more prosperous life.
  This bill is just the kind of proposal that enables people. It 
enables parents to help their children get a real opportunity by 
choosing better schools for them to attend. It enables students to 
learn and succeed. It enables teachers to succeed by giving them the 
freedom to use their firsthand knowledge.
  And it enables administrators to succeed by freeing them from 
bureaucratic mandates and giving them the chance to use their good 
judgment.
  The bill would continue the Federal charter schools program, which 
since 1994 has given grants to states to start new charter schools. It 
would make improvements to that program to ensure that those funds are 
used as effectively as possible to increase the number of high-quality 
charter schools.
  Specifically, this bill would invest more Federal funds in the 
replication and expansion of high-quality charter schools with a proven 
record of success, while still giving States the flexibility to invest 
in innovative new models.
  The bill would continue Federal support for non-profit organizations 
which help charter schools find suitable facilities, while also 
encouraging States to assist charter schools in this task.
  It would provide those hard-working and creative educators seeking to 
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charter schools with greater flexibility in how they use Federal 
startup grants, for example, by allowing them to use the funds for 
transportation or for facilities improvements if that is what they 
decide is the best use of funds.
  Finally, this legislation would encourage States to provide charter 
schools with the support they need to be successful and to hold them 
accountable when they fail to demonstrate positive results.
  Last summer, Senator Rand Paul and I sat in a room with the parents 
who had been able to get their child into a charter school in 
Nashville, where 600 students were left on the waiting list.
  It was an emotional experience to hear these parents talk about their 
child getting this opportunity, to hear the students talk about how 
well they are doing, and to hear from the teachers who spend their 
lives helping these students.
  Charter schools are public schools stripped of many Federal, State 
and union rules and constraints placed on traditional public schools. 
The money the State government would ordinarily spend on their district 
school follows each child to the charter school instead.
  Charter schools cannot charge tuition, and any student who wants to 
attend a charter school may do so if space is available.
  If more students want to attend than can be accommodated, the charter 
school must use a lottery to decide which students receive a seat.
  Several years ago I visited the Memphis Academy of Science and 
Engineering, a charter school in Memphis. While most Memphis students 
were on spring break at the time, the sophomores I visited were in the 
classroom studying Advanced Placement biology.
  Because the school's teachers have the flexibility to do what is best 
for their students, the school was open 12 hours a day and on Saturday 
mornings because many of these children did not have as much at home as 
others. And these children, who the year before had been at schools 
deemed ``low-performing,'' were succeeding.
  These students were fortunate because their parents had the 
opportunity to choose this charter school, and their children were 
lucky enough to win a seat.
  Across Tennessee, more than 15,000 students now have that same 
opportunity to attend one of 68 charter schools--and they are thriving 
as a result.
  A recent study by Stanford University found that, on average, 
Tennessee students attending charter schools gain the equivalent of 86 
additional days of instruction in reading and 72 additional days of 
instruction in math each year than do students attending district 
schools.
  In other words, they make almost a year-and-a-half's worth of 
progress in a single school year.
  About 60 percent of students attending charter schools in Tennessee 
are low-income, more than 90 percent are African American or Hispanic.
  In other words, charter schools in Tennessee are making a difference 
for those students who have traditionally been least well served by our 
Nation's public schools.
  We have come a long way since 1992, when, in my last act as U.S. 
Education Secretary under George H.W. Bush, I sent a letter to every 
school superintendent across the country, urging them to consider 
replicating the early successes of charter schools in Minnesota--which 
were then called ``start-from-scratch schools.''
  At the time, there were only a dozen charter schools in existence. 
Today, there are well over 6,000, serving over 2.5 million students. 
Nearly 5 percent of all public schools students in the United States 
now attend charters.
  Most important--the fact that should give great urgency to our effort 
here today--there are an estimated 580,000 students on waiting lists 
for charter schools throughout the Nation.
  That is because parents and students see that charter schools are 
working.

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