[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

[[Page 833]]

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

[[Page 834]]

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