Reimagining Education: How Charter Schools Are Closing Gaps and Opening Doors
House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
2025-05-14
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Source: Congress.gov
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The Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education will come to order. I note that a quorum is present. Without objection, the chair is authorized to call recess at any time. Over the past 25 years, charter schools have emerged as the single most impactful reform in American public education. Designed to provide public tuition-free alternatives with increased flexibility in exchange for accountability, charter schools have grown from a handful in the early 1990s to over 8,150 schools serving more than 3.7 million students nationwide by 2024. In addition to providing parents with meaningful choices for their children, research shows that charter schools have particularly benefited low-income students and students of color in urban areas, creating new and innovative education models, extended learning time, and higher college readiness rates. Indeed, a 2023 study from Stanford's Center for Research on Education Outcomes showed that in math, charter school students learn the equivalent of an additional six days per year, and in reading, added 16 days of learning. The results are especially striking for at-risk students. Students in poverty achieve an additional 23 days of learning and reading and 17 days in math. Many charters have narrowed or even eliminated achievement gaps. Results like these are remarkable. As the recent Nation's Report Card made clear, our education system has been in a state of steady and alarming decline. But charters are a rare bright spot. It's uncommon to find widespread education innovation that succeeds, helping millions of students year after year, but charter schools do exactly that. And the benefits of charter schools go beyond just academic results. Charters open doors to innovation for teachers and administrators. Charter school autonomy encourages teachers to pioneer fresh teaching methods, schools to develop better hiring practices, and educational boards to innovate in budget management.
Charter schools also make it easier for parents to find schools aligned with their family's values. Perhaps that's why a national survey found that 81% of parents support expanding the number of slots in existing charter schools in their area and 78% want more charter school offerings in their area. Today, we'll hear testimony about charters across the country that are getting amazing results for their students. We'll hear that charter schools are among the best educational options for high poverty and minority students. We'll hear expert testimony that charter schools actually motivate traditional public schools to improve because of the healthy effects of competition. Indeed, there's a tipping point for charter school enrollment in a given region that lifts up all students, whether they're in charters or not. Yet somehow, Despite this incredible record of success, charter schools have come under attack from certain elected officials and special interests who were intent on keeping students trapped in failing schools. Nowhere is this more evident than in my home state of California, a state that once led the way on charter school expansion, but is now ground zero for the assault on educational freedom. California has more charter school students than any other state, with over 700,000 children attending 1,281 schools. These schools serve over 12% of all public school students and overwhelmingly serve low-income and minority families. But since taking office, Governor Gavin Newsom has led a relentless campaign to dismantle the charter school success story. His administration has signed laws to block new charters, deny renewals, and choke existing schools with red tape and funding cuts. The two-pronged strategy is playing out as we speak. First, use state law and district politics to block new charter schools and deny renewals and expansions for existing ones. Second, strip successful schools of their autonomy and bury them under the very bureaucracy and labor constraints that have paralyzed traditional schools.
The goal is clear, protect a failing monopoly by eliminating competition. Instead of replicating what works, politicians in California and other states are punishing success and students are paying the price. Yet at this moment, we have an opportunity to support charters in powerful ways and expand their enrollment nationwide. Congress can pass the High Quality Charter Schools Act, which through strategic tax credits, aims to vastly expand the numbers of proven, successful charters across the country. Specifically, the bill establishes a 75% federal tax credit for charitable contributions toward the startup costs of nonprofit charter school organizations that have a proven track record of excellence. If the High Quality Charter Schools Act were to become law, we would see tremendous schools like Success Academy and KIPP multiply across the country, with up to six million more students enrolling. This would be an enormous benefit, not only to those students, but to all students, as the expansion of charter schools along with the private school choice enabled by the Educational Choice for Children Act would be a powerful force for education reform across the country. And I do have to say, I was very disappointed when the text of the reconciliation bill for the Ways and Means Committee came out a couple days ago that there was nothing for charter school families in that text. It was a tremendous victory to see the tax credit envisioned by the ECCA included, but it was incomprehensible to me that the bill would not seek to use this perhaps once in a generation opportunity, to expand the charter school movement across the country. We have Democrat politicians like Gavin Newsom or politicians in New York who have been attacking charter schools relentlessly despite their incredible success.
And if Republicans are not willing to stand up for charters, then I don't know who will be. So I am strongly encouraging my colleagues to assure that the final text includes tax incentives to vastly expand the number of charter schools across the country. With that said, I'm looking forward to today's hearing. I'd like to thank all of our witnesses for attending, and I yield to the ranking member for an opening statement.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the witnesses for being here. Charter schools, as a reminder, are public schools that receive taxpayer dollars.
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