DeLauro Statement on Biden Administration Rule Improving Charter School Program Transparency and Accountability

House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) today applauded the U.S. Department of Education and the Biden Administration on improving transparency and accountability in the Charter Schools Program (CSP).

"I welcome the Department's reasonable reforms to the Charter School Program (CSP), and I reject the premise that grant failure and school closure is the cost of doing business in CSP," said Chair DeLauro. "Instead, we must improve accountability, transparency, and fiscal responsibility within CSP. And we have known for years that charters run by for-profit educational management organizations (EMOs) pose serious financial risks to the Federal programs the Appropriations Committee oversees.

"I am pleased to see that the Department protects students and taxpayers from these low quality, risky institutions by preventing CSP from funding charters run by for-profit EMOs. The organizations who mislead and misrepresent these reasonable reforms have made it clear—they prefer a status quo with limited accountability and transparency in CSP. I applaud Secretary Cardona and the Biden administration for making plain that those days are over."

The rule announced by the Biden administration will ensure greater oversight of the CSP, despite the efforts of trade organizations, who ran a well-funded misinformation campaign to avoid any new oversight, and to shift outrage and attention away from the risky, low-quality for-profit charter schools they represent.

According to the Department, roughly 15% of the charter schools that received federal start-up funding either never opened or closed within a few years, a waste of $174 million in taxpayer funds.

The rule issued by the Department of Education would:

• Ban charter schools controlled by a for-profit company from receiving a grant;
• Require applicants to show that there is local demand for new charter schools; and
• Require applicants to demonstrate that they would not exacerbate segregation in local school systems.

In April, DeLauro called on Secretary Cardona to maintain a strong CSP proposal.

This week, during the full committee markup of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and related agencies appropriations bill, DeLauro's Committee defeated a GOP effort to block Biden's CSP reforms.