March 2023 — President Biden recently released his fiscal year 2024 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education. Here’s a breakdown of the proposal from our friends at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
The Good:
- The President’s budget calls for significant increases in K-12 education—a 13.6% jump from the 2023 enacted level—for a total of $10.8 billion in additional funding.
- The additional resources for K-12 public education would help meet critical post-pandemic educational, mental health, and staffing needs.
- We were also encouraged to see that the U.S. Department of Education requested greater flexibility to adjust spending within Charter Schools Program (CSP) funding areas, in response to real-time needs across the various program components. This is a positive step.
The Bad:
- What was missing from the proposed additional resources? The Charter Schools Program (CSP), the nation’s only source of federal funding dedicated to charter schools, was flat-funded at $440 million.
- Reminder: The CSP accounts for less than 1% of federal spending on K-12 education!
- Funding for the CSP hasn’t increased since fiscal year 2019 and is $60 million short of what thousands of charter school advocates are asking from Congress.
What you can do:
The Charter Schools Program (CSP) is the nation’s only source of federal funding for new, expanding, and replicating charter schools. Still, it has been flat-funded at $440 million for the past four years—less than 1% of the country’s total public education budget.
We are asking Congress for $500 million to ensure charter schools are able to continue to open in the communities that want and need them. It is particularly important that CSP funding effectively supports charter school facilities.
Ask your parents, teachers, and stakeholders to contact their Members of Congress using this easy-to-use link: https://act.publiccharters.org/en/
Use this link below for Spanish-speaking parents.