The politically charged momentum of charter schools is partially due to the fact that it has gained supporters from both sides of the political spectrum; liberals support the idea of "accountable reform" within the public school system, while conservatives support a system that competes with traditional public schools. Ray Budde, in his 1996 article "The Evolution of the Charter Concept" explained that while the stakeholders in a traditional public school district may not be inclined to introduce reforms for altruistic or idealistic reasons, they might "restructure the establishment if they felt that they were under severe pressure and that not changing would have more serious consequences than changing." Budde's 15-year-old prediction has proved true, as many urban school systems have been pushed to adopt drastic reform measures solely to stop students from fleeing to charter schools.
While many states were quick to jump on the charter school legislation bandwagon, there was no federal legislation addressing the movement until 1994. In 1994, under the Clinton administration, the basic Charter Schools Program (CSP) was created as an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The purpose of the program was to provide funds to State Education Agencies (SEA) in order to create and support charter schools. Four years later, the program was amended in the "Charter Schools Expansion Act" of 1998. The act was widely supported in both houses, with an 84% vote in the House of Representatives, and a 100% vote in the Senate.
The purpose of the program is to provide funds to "plan, design and implement new charter schools, as well a to disseminate information on successful charter schools" in order to "expand the number of high-quality charter schools available to students across the Nation." Through the creation of the CSP the Federal government recognized the power of charter schools to transform the public education system by both challenging traditional public schools to improve their quality of education, as well as by "enhancing parent and student choices among public schools and giving more students the opportunity to learn to challenging standards."
CSP Funding
In 1995 its first year of providing funds, the CSP provided $4,539,548 of appropriations to nine applicants. Since then, the program has drastically increased the funds it provides, but has not drastically increased the number of recipients - meaning more funding is going to the same number of applicants. For example, In 2010, the highest spending year of CSP, the program awarded $138,004,339 of appropriations to twelve recipients. The awards per recipient for 2010 ranged from about $1.3 million to about $51.9 million. The CSP in general approves applications for funds from SEAs that oversee charter schools. However, in the case that a state does not apply for funding, or is denied funding, individual charter schools may apply directly to the CSP. Once SEA's have received funds, they may not sub-grant the award to a charter school unless it meets the following criteria:
-It is exempt from significant State or local rules that 'inhibit the flexible operation and management' of public schools
-It is created by a developer as a public school, and is operated under public supervision and direction.
-It operates in "pursuit of a specific set of educational objectives."
-It provides either elementary or secondary education, or both.
-It is not affiliated with a sectarian school or religious institution. (However, like other public schools, charter schools may enter into partnerships with religious groups for secular purposes, like tutoring or recreational activities.)
-It does not charge tuition.
-It complies with the Age Discrimination Act of 1975.
-Parents choose to send their children to the school, and that if more students apply than can be accommodated they are chosen through a lottery.
-It agrees to comply with the same federal and state audit requirements of traditional public schools.
-It meets all applicable federal, state and local health and safety requirements.
-It operates in accordance with state law.
- It has a written performance contract with an authorized public chartering agency in the state, which includes a description of how student performance will be measured, and can be compared to assessments required of traditional public schools.
These funds may be used for up to three years. In addition, the SEA may reserve up to 5 percent of funds for administrative expenses, and up to 10 percent to support dissemination activities (or activities that help open new public schools, including charter schools.)
In 2010, the Obama administration renewed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (which includes the Charter School Program), but with strengthened accountability measures. In a press release entitled "Public School Choice" the administration explained that the program would provide competitive grants to state education agencies or local education agencies that managed charter schools, but that applications would be evaluated based on "record of past success in funding, supporting authorizing, managing, or operating (as relevant) high-performing public charter schools or other high-performing autonomous public schools; their record of cutting off funding to or closing low-performing charter schools...; and their commitment to improving the quality of their schools in the future."