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Dive briefs:
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Federally funded charter schools were about 1.5 times less likely to close than charter schools that did not receive awards through the charter school program between 2006 and 2020. According to a report by the Government Accountability Office Released on Tuesday. The same pattern was generally maintained within 12 years of receiving CSP grants.
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The report also revealed that the state gave about $152 million, or 8%, of those grants to charter schools that closed or never opened. About 14% of the charter schools (638) that received CSP state awards (the largest of his CSP grant programs) closed or never opened, according to GAO’s analysis.
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According to the GAO, 6,023 CSP grants totaling about $2.5 billion were awarded between FY2006 and FY2020.
Dive Insight:
this is the first A review of the charter school grant program that has been in place since at least 2013, according to Jacqueline Nowicki, who has overseen GAO’s K-12 work since then. is.
This is in line with increased scrutiny of charter schools under the Biden administration, beginning with then-candidate Joe Biden’s election promises, Who vowed to set the rules Prioritize charters and limit funding to those that don’t deliver results.
In this new report, GAO states: “Doubts have been raised about the validity of CSP subsidies.”
the report shows California, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin received the most CSP state awards for charter schools that closed or never opened. Of these, California, Texas, and Florida had the most funding for charter schools that were closed or never opened, at more than $10 million.
According to the report, state education officials in five states will recover funds and reallocate funds to future charter schools when subgrants are awarded to charter schools that have closed or never opened. and states that it will redistribute purchases made by charter school approvers to other charter schools.
This report is another release heels Last week, we found that more than half of state and charter management organization grant recipients have unspent federal funds that they have pledged to use to expand or create charter schools.
According to that data, 94 charter school program grantees achieved only 51% of their goals. This equates to 798 schools opened or expanded. The state has opened or expanded less than half of her promised 1,076 schools.
in the meantime, CSP authorization rules It was finalized in July by the Biden administration. Among the new requirements is a needs analysis that applicants must complete. Assess the charter’s feasibility and need in the community.
Through these requirements, the Ministry of Education said i asked “To promote financial and operational transparency and accountability for CSP-funded charter schools.”
