Supporting the goals and ideals of National Charter School Week, to be held May 2 through May 8, 2010.

Madam Speaker, I stand before you today in support of H. Res. 1149, ``Supporting the goals and ideals of National Charter Schools Week, to be held May 2 through May 8, 2010''. I would like to begin by thanking my colleague Rep. Bishop for introducing this resolution in the House, as quality education should be at the top of our priorities list. I urge my colleagues to support and acknowledge charter schools and their students, parents, teachers, and administrators across the United States for their ongoing contributions to education and improving and strengthening our public school system.

Charter school programs such as Yes Prep, Harmony, WALIPP, and KIPP deliver high-quality education, challenge our students to reach their potential throughout the United States, and provide thousands of families with diverse and innovative educational options for their children. Charter schools improve their students' achievement and can stimulate improvement in traditional public schools as well. These unique, public schools are authorized by a designated public entity that is responding to the needs of our communities, families, and students and promoting the principles of quality, choice, and innovation.

Charter schools take a revolutionary approach in educating our nation's students. Today, roughly 4,700 charter schools are now serving approximately 1,400,000 children in 40 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico this year. Charter schools continually demonstrate their ongoing success to parents, policymakers, and their communities. Some charter schools even routinely measure parental satisfaction levels while all give parents new freedom to choose their public school.

Charter schools nationwide serve a higher percentage of low-income and minority students than the traditional public system and deliver a high quality education. Chartering is a radical educational innovation that is moving states beyond reforming existing schools to creating something entirely new. Chartering is at the center of a growing movement to challenge traditional notions of what public education means.

Charter schools have demonstrated their commitment to high academic standards, small class sizes, innovative approaches and educational philosophies. Many parents choose charter schools for their small size and associated safety as charter schools serve an average of 250 students.

I am pleased that over the last 15 years, Congress has provided substantial support to the charter school movement through startup financing assistance and grants for planning, implementation, and dissemination. In addition, these schools have enjoyed broad bipartisan support from the administration, Congress, State Governors and legislatures, educators, and parents across the United States.

The intention of most charter school legislation is to: increase opportunities for learning and access to quality education for all students, create choice for parents and students within the public school system, provide a system of accountability for results in public education, encourage innovative teaching practices, create new professional opportunities for teachers, encourage community and parent involvement in public education, and leverage improved public education broadly.

Competition from charter schools has been shown to increase composite test scores in traditional district schools. Furthermore, twice as many registered voters favor charter schools as oppose them. The more people learn about charter schools, the more they like them. Congress must lend its support to these schools and their goals, especially since on average, the funding gap between charter schools and traditional schools is 22 percent, or $1,800 per pupil. The average charter school ends up with a total funding shortfall of nearly half a million dollars. Yet, 12 studies find that overall gains in charter schools are larger than other public schools; four find charter schools' gains higher in certain significant categories of schools and six find comparable gains to traditional schools. I ask my colleagues for their continued support of charter schools and urge them to support this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1149) supporting the goals and ideals of National Charter School Week, to be held May 2 through May 8, 2010.

Madam Speaker, I request 5 legislative days during which Members may revise and extend and insert extraneous material on House Resolution 1149 into the Record.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 1149, a resolution in support of the goals and ideals of National Charter School Week from May 2 through May 8, 2010, and to recognize the growing charter school movement in our Nation.

Since their inception in 1991, charter schools have offered a competitive education to many of our Nation's public school students and have helped drive school reforms across the country. Charter schools across the United States support diverse and innovative instruction and learning models. With autonomy and flexibility, charter schools can make timely decisions about how to structure the school day, which curricula best suits the needs of their students, and which types of staff will enrich the school communities. Additionally, quality charter schools form important partnerships with parents and with their surrounding communities.

This week, charter schools across the country will celebrate the 11th annual National Charter School Week. It is a great time to highlight the role these schools serve in driving education innovation and reform.

Today, there are almost 5,000 public charter schools, which are operating in 39 States and in the District of Columbia. They serve more than 1.5 million students, with many more students on waiting lists. To address this demand, many States and districts are welcoming charters to their neighborhoods. With the start of the school year, over 400 new public charter schools opened their doors to nearly 170,000 new students.

The growing charter school movement is also providing opportunities for many historically underserved communities. Nationally, charter schools serve a high percentage of minority and low-income students. In fact, 58 percent of charter school students are minorities, and 35 percent qualify for free and reduced priced lunches. Quality charter schools are often able to achieve impressive academic results.

Madam Speaker, once again, I express my support for National Charter School Week, and I recognize the charter school movement and its 18- year history of promoting a high-quality public educational option--an option that is innovative, flexible, and responsive to community needs.

I thank Representative Bishop for introducing this resolution, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I urge passage of House Resolution 1149, and I yield back the balance of my time.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, as you know, it is very difficult for me to speak without chalk in my hand at any given time.

Today, I rise to support House Resolution 1149, supporting the goals and ideals of National Charter School Week, which is being held now. Actually, it runs from May 2 through May 8 of this year. This week has been designated as the 11th annual Charter School Week.

Charter schools are innovative public schools that have unique freedoms and responsibilities. They explore new educational approaches, and they are free from some rules and regulations governing traditional public schools. In exchange for this freedom, charter schools are held to a higher level of accountability than traditional public schools might be.

Charter schools must demonstrate the success of their students' academic achievements to parents, to policymakers, to authorizers, and to their communities or face closure. Many charter schools have met and have exceeded in this challenge. Most charter schools meet necessary student achievement and accountability requirements, and they often set higher individual goals to ensure that they are of high quality and are truly accountable to the public. However, despite these innovative approaches and promising reports of parental satisfaction, charter schools often face unique and unusual obstacles in creating and replicating successful schools.

One such obstacle is State caps, which limit their growth. Twenty-six States and the District of Columbia have some type of limit, or cap, on charter school growth. Most caps restrict the number of charter schools allowed. Others limit the number of students that a single school may serve. These caps prohibit effective charter schools from being created and replicated and, thereby, from serving students in need, oftentimes in niche needs.

It is essential that Congress continues to support public charter school programs and that it continues to recognize the unique attributes and benefits of charter schools. These programs provide support for the development of charter schools. These programs have helped to create a public charter school system all across this country--schools that work to improve academic achievement, oftentimes for low-income students.

It is important that the charter community is able to continue to provide a high-quality option based on innovation, on freedom from red tape, and on partnerships between parents and educators and that it is able to continue to give hope, oftentimes to disadvantaged and at-risk students across this Nation.

It is, indeed, one of those good things that we are doing in our school system, and I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 1149 which recognizes the important impact charter schools have on students across the nation who attend them.

Charter schools have been one of the fastest-growing innovative forces in education policy. In the past 4 years, 1,600 new charter schools opened and 500,000 additional public school students chose to enroll in charter schools nationwide.

In my home state of New Jersey, 68 approved charter schools serve more than 22,000 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12. These schools, through creative solutions and selfless dedication, provide an invaluable service to children caught in failing public school systems.

I have been a longtime advocate of school choice. Giving parents options for their child's education not only helps to better educate students, but can also help to build stronger, more prosperous communities. As incubators of innovation in education, charter schools challenge other schools to do better.

Not every child in America is fortunate enough to attend a high performing public school or has the means to afford a first-rate private or parochial education. And, we all know the story of many failing public schools across the nation: Low graduation rates. High dropout rates. Low mathematics and reading scores. Charter schools, school vouchers and other programs that give families a choice in their child's education have and will continue to make a significant and positive impact on those statistics.

We can no longer be distracted by the ideological battles surrounding educational choice and competition while children graduate without the skills to succeed here at home, or even less so in our global economy.

Madam speaker, I close today in appreciation for the teachers and students of charter schools, and the communities and private donors that support them, for their contributions and achievements and I encourage my colleagues to do the same.