House Passes First Bipartisan Piece of ESEA Reauthorization
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House of Representatives today passed bipartisan legislation that included key Democratic priorities to strengthen and improve charter schools. The legislation, the Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act, is the first bipartisan piece of the reauthorization of Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). It passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support by a vote of 365 to 54. Republicans, though, have yet to put forth critically-needed reforms that would overhaul the full ESEA to improve all schools for all students.
“Charter schools have helped lead the way to bring innovation and bold ideas to education. With this legislation, we help modernize the charter school model by ensuring better accountability, more options for English Language Learners and students with disabilities and more sharing of best practices both among charter schools and within a school district,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the Education and the Workforce Committee. “Most importantly, with this bill we keep the focus on what’s best for our students. This is an important step forward toward the broader goal of fixing our entire education system – it’s good, but it’s not enough. Our next step should be a comprehensive reauthorization that provides the relief our schools and our students desperately need.”
Democrats were pivotal in ensuring key provisions were included in the the Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act such as increasing access for underserved populations like students with disabilities and English Language Learners, improving methods to include local input from communities and parents and prioritizing quality both among charter authorizers and for states that support high quality charter schools. This bill returns charter schools to their original purpose as innovative public schools that respond to the needs of the community.
Under this reauthorization, students with disabilities, English language learners and other traditionally underserved students will have increased opportunities to attend and succeed at high-quality charter schools. It requires charter schools to have recruitment and enrollment practices that promote inclusion, retention, and engage students with limited opportunities to attend charter schools.
This bill also requires parent and community input charter school implementation and operation. It requires this input at all levels within an education system, including the state and authorizer. The bill improves transparency by including new priority for charter schools supporting at-risk students including through dropout prevention and recovery programs. It also requires that each charter school make publicy available the student support services, teachers and annual performance and enrollment data for all students, disaggregated by subgroup.
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