Dear Congressional Leadership:

As Congress finishes it FY2010 appropriations work, there is a critical difference between the House and Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related agencies bills, which fund the US Department of Education and its charter school programs. These programs provide vital support at key points in the development of charter schools; helping cover the extraordinary costs of launching successful charter schools; disseminating their successful innovations to other public schools; and providing financial incentives to state governments and private lenders to help enable charter schools to build and renovate much needed facilities. Although both bills include a significant increase for the programs this year, the House bill currently includes language “capping,” or limiting, the amount of funding that can be spent on replicating and expanding the best charter school models.

In a speech earlier this year to the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, President Obama explicitly called on states to “… reform their charter rules, and lift caps on the number of allowable charter schools, wherever such caps are in place.” As the federal government works with states to lift caps on charter schools, Congress must not “cap” its own support for growing the best charter school models! When the Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies bill goes to conference, the Senate language should be the final language adopted into the conference report, specifically:

“Provided further, That of the funds available for subpart 1 of part B of title V of the ESEA, and not withstanding section 5205(a), the Secretary may reserve funds to make multiple awards for grants and sub-grants to charter management organizations and other entities for the replication and expansion of successful charter school models”

As charter school supporters, we sincerely hope the Congress will work with the President to accomplish this goal, not cap his efforts to expand and grow our best public charter school models. With over 365,000 children on charter school waiting lists, and millions of American children trapped in low performing public schools, now is the time to grow what works and expand our best public charter schools.

Sincerely,

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