[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6072]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



              RECOGNITION OF NATIONAL CHARTER SCHOOLS WEEK

 Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, next Monday, May 1, 2000, is the 
first day of the first National Charter Schools Week in our nation's 
history, an event modeled after similar state level celebrations in 
Michigan and California. I feel that this is a momentous occasion which 
provides the nation with an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate 
the hard work and many accomplishments of charter school teachers, 
students, parents, administrators, and board members. Charter schools 
are a relatively recent phenomenon, but they have already established 
their mark on our nation's public education system.
  Mr. President, I am extremely proud of the role the State of Michigan 
has played in the development of charter schools. Since 1993, when 
Michigan became the ninth state to grant citizens the freedom to 
establish charter schools, 173 public school academies, as they are 
called, have been founded. This places Michigan third in the nation in 
number of charter schools, behind just Arizona and California. In the 
fall of 1999, over 50,000 students attended these public school 
academies, up from 30,000 in 1998. More importantly, 91 percent of 
Michigan parents said their charter public school did a better job of 
educating their child, and eight of ten said charter schools are better 
at motivating students.
  It is my feeling that these numbers are an indication of the many 
benefits charter public schools offer to communities. They provide 
parents and students with choice in education. They allow teachers a 
degree of flexibility that cannot be found in traditional public 
schools. Furthermore, they allow administrators and board members a 
certain amount of innovation in the founding, and also the funding, of 
schools, and in the decisions that are made in how they are to be run.
  Mr. President, what charter schools do, first and foremost, is give 
teachers, students, parents, and administrators the ability to 
experiment, to tinker with the system in the hopes of improving it, and 
they do this while at the same time remaining accountable to local and 
state school boards. If our educational system is to improve, if we are 
truly going to strive to provide our nation's children with the 
education they deserve, I feel that charter schools are going to play a 
vital role in this process.
  Indeed, Mr. President, in charter schools, we have a situation where 
everybody wins. Parents are able to send their children to a safe 
school environment where they will have more say in the entire process. 
Teachers are able to find new ways to do their own work, to work 
together with one another, and to work with members of the community. 
Administrators are lifted from many of the restraints of the 
traditional public school system. And the greatest benefactor of all 
this will be our nation's public school students. They are the ones who 
will benefit from the competition, the experimentation, and the 
innovation, because of the effect that these things will have on our 
entire public education system.
  Mr. President, I have long been a supporter of charter schools and 
the many opportunities they offer. It was my pleasure last year to have 
secured $925,000 in funding for Central Michigan University, which will 
use this money to establish a national Charter Schools Development and 
Performance Institute. The grand opening of the institute is May 1, 
2000, which also happens to be Michigan's Third Annual Charter School 
Day. The goal of the institute is to foster high-performing students 
and effectively run charter public schools by promoting development, 
achievement, and accountability. It will also disseminate information 
on and assist schools with the design and the implementation of charter 
school models.
  Mr. President, I am extremely excited that the week of May 1-May 5, 
2000, is being officially recognized as National Charter Schools Week. 
I am hopeful that this will help to make our nation more aware of 
charter schools, and the wonderful opportunities they offer to 
teachers, parents, and students throughout our nation. The sooner we 
fully realize the potential of charter schools, the sooner they will be 
able to fully reach this potential.

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