    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [May 4, 2000]
    [Pages 832-834]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 832]]

    Memorandum on Additional Guidelines for Charter Schools
    May 4, 2000

    Memorandum for the Secretary of Education

    Subject: Additional Guidelines for Charter Schools

        My Administration has taken landmark steps to help State and
    localities improve educational opportunities for students by providing
    much needed resources to reduce class size, improve teacher quality, and
    expand summer school and after-school programs. Last year, for the first
    time ever, the Federal Government provided funds to States and
    localities specifically to intervene and assist low-performing schools.
    This year, our School Improvement Fund will provide $134 million to
    States and localities to help them turn around low-performing schools.
    In addition, through the 1994 reauthorization of the Elementary and
    Secondary Education Act and Goals 2000, States have developed standards
    and accountability systems to identify schools that are low performing.
    Already, we are seeing results from this focus on standards-based reform
    and greater investment, including a rise in test scores among our most
    disadvantaged students. Nonetheless, much work remains to be done. In
    too many communities, predominately low-income communities, there is
    still a shortage of high-quality educational opportunities available to
    students.
        One of the most heartening educational developments during my
    Administration is the extraordinary growth of public charter schools. In
    1992, just before I took office, there was only one charter school in
    the country, City Academy in St. Paul, Minnesota. Since then, because of
    strong leadership at the local, State, and Federal level, the number of
    charter schools has exploded and it is now estimated that there are more
    than 1,700 charter schools nationwide. The Federal Government has
    invested almost $400 million in charter schools since 1994, and
    advocates of charter schools credit this investment for the remarkable
    growth of charter schools. The Budget that I sent to the Congress this
    year will provide $175 million for charter schools in FY 2001. By next
    year, the charter school program will have helped nearly 2,400 charter
    schools since its inception, supporting my Administration's goal of
    creating 3,000 public charter schools by 2002.
        Charter schools are a vital engine of school reform because they
    promote accountability for results, competition, and choice within the
    public school system. Unlike vouchers, which do nothing to increase the
    number of high-quality educational options for students in a community,
    charter schools allow local community groups, teachers, or parents to
    open public schools that meet their needs. And, unlike vouchers, charter
    schools do not drain taxpayer dollars from the public school system and
    are accountable to the public for results. Because charter schools are
    truly community-based schools created by local communities to address
    their own particular needs, it is essential that all institutions in a
    community understand how they can play a role with regard to charter
    schools. Every entity that can play a positive role in school reform
    needs to be engaged in ensuring that children and parents have high-
    quality public schools and choices among those public schools.
        Among the community institutions that can provide important support
    for the goals of charter schools are local faith-based and business
    institutions. Both have resources that can support the efforts of
    charter schools to create high-quality, innovative learning environments
    that serve all children and help them to meet high standards.
        Faith-based and community-based organizations play an important role
    in feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and educating our children
    in communities around this Nation. Already many faith- and community-
    based organizations partner with government at the Federal, State, and
    local level to help our Nation's families. Under my Administration,
    faith-based organizations have also become eligible to receive Federal
    funds in an array of social programs on the same basis as other
    community-based organizations, consistent with the constitutional line
    between church and state. For example, States can use their welfare
    reform funds to contract with faith-based organizations on the same
    basis as other nongovernment providers to provide services such as job
    preparation, mentoring, childcare, and other services to help families
    moving from welfare to work. The 1998 Human Services reauthorization
    similarly allows

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    faith-based organizations to provide services under the Community
    Services Block Grant to reduce poverty, revitalize low-income
    communities, and help low-income families become self-sufficient.
        Vice President Gore and I support such efforts and believe we can do
    even more to increase the valuable partnership role religiously
    affiliated and community-based organizations can play in addressing some
    of the most important issues facing our families and communities. My
    Administration has proposed to increase the involvement of such
    organizations in education, housing, community-development, criminal and
    juvenile-justice programs, in breaking the cycle of teen pregnancy,
    promoting responsible fatherhood, and helping families move from welfare
    to work. To help support these worthy causes, my Budget will provide tax
    breaks to encourage all Americans to give to charity.
        Schools and faith communities should be reaching out to each other,
    in ways consistent with the Constitution, to support their common goals
    for children and families. There are successful partnerships between
    public schools and faith communities across the Nation in after-school
    programs, school safety, discipline, and student literacy. These range
    from mentoring programs jointly run by schools and interfaith groups to
    statewide summits on the role of faith-based groups in college
    preparation. In 1995, we sent every school district in the country the
    guidebook Religion in the Public Schools: A Statement of Principles.
    Last December, building on those principles, I announced a comprehensive
    set of guidelines to be mailed to every public school in the Nation and
    to leading religious organizations encouraging greater cooperation,
    within constitutional limits, between public schools and community
    groups, including faith-based organizations. The guidelines emphasized
    both the protection of private religious expression in schools and the
    prohibitions against coerced student participation in religious
    expression. These guidelines were the culmination of my Administration's
    4-year effort to forge consensus on the role of religion in the schools.
        Likewise, business institutions have proven themselves to be
    valuable partners in helping schools and school districts better prepare
    students to develop the skills and knowledge they need to be part of the
    21st century workforce. Over the last 2 decades, businesses have played
    a leadership role at the local, State, and national levels in supporting
    the need for school reform and advancing the standards-based movement.
    Although school-business partnership can be little more than a donation,
    there are many examples across the country of businesses that are
    working actively with schools to help improve the quality of public
    education. In these partnerships, businesses are working to help bolster
    school curricula, train teachers, implement technology effectively,
    offer mentors and tutors to students, and provide lessons in management
    and leadership. If this Nation's public schools are to offer the kind of
    high-quality education that prepares students for the world of work and
    active citizenship, then businesses must play a key role in this
    process.
        Businesses have much to offer the charter movement. Because charter
    schools are exempt from many regulations governing traditional public
    schools, they have more freedom to develop innovative educational
    programs and to partner with business institutions in creative ways.
    Currently, there are over 100 employer-linked charter schools in
    operation across the country. These schools vary from those offering
    very focused career preparation, to those that incorporate modest
    exposure to jobs, careers, and employers. What they share in common are
    innovative environments that offer work-based and career-focused
    educational experiences for students from a wide variety of backgrounds.
        But I believe that businesses can do more to work with charter
    schools to develop stimulating educational environments that prepare our
    students for the challenges of the workforce in the 21st century. I
    especially believe that employer-linked charter schools offer a new
    range of possibilities for those students who are not finding success in
    our more traditional public schools.
        Accordingly, because there is still a great deal of confusion about
    how different entities can be involved in the charter movement, I direct
    you to work together with the Department of Justice to develop
    guidelines to be released prior to the 2000-2001 school year to help
    faith-based and other community-based and business institutions
    understand the role they can play in the charter school movement. Public
    charter schools must be nonsectarian and nondiscriminatory in their
    admissions and practices. In addition, as with other public schools, a
    charter school

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    should not offer opportunities for the commercial exploitation of its
    students and/or its mission. However, there are numerous ways that
    faith-based groups and employers can play a positive role in creating
    and supporting public charter schools, just as other community
    organizations do. These guidelines would augment the existing guidelines
    for public charter schools and the guidelines for religious expression
    in public schools that I released in December.
        Increasing the quality of education in this country for
    disadvantaged students is a national priority but requires the active
    involvement of every affected community. In economically distressed
    communities, faith-based organizations and business partners can play
    critically important roles in providing needed support services and job-
    focused experiences for students who too often lack either. Ensuring
    that faith-based and business institutions can play a vigorous role in
    expanding educational opportunities while respecting the separation of
    church and state and the limitations on commercial involvement in
    schools is an important step to providing high-quality educational
    experiences for all children.

                                                          William J. Clinton