NACSA Blog

NACSA Blog

Press Releases


NACSA Cheers Passage of Comprehensive Charter School Reform Bill in Ohio

Today Ohio state lawmakers passed House Bill 2 (HB 2), a comprehensive charter school reform bill. In response, Amanda Fenton, director of state and federal policy at NACSA, issued the following statement: …


NACSA Urges Ohio Legislature to Pass Charter School Reform Bill

The National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) fully supports Ohio House Bill 2 (HB 2) as passed by the conference committee today. We are pleased with the legislatures’ commitment to this …


California Authorizers Take the Lead to Improve Charter School Quality and Oversight in State

NACSA commends the Alameda County Office of Education’s new Charter Authorizers’ Resource Network (CARSNet) and California Charter Authorizing Professionals (CCAP) as they kick off the California Charter Authorizers Conference—the first-ever conference focused …


U.S. Department of Education Emphasizes Charter School Oversight, Including NACSA’s National Authorizing Standards

Chicago, Ill. — Today the U.S. Department of Education announced the next round of Charter Schools Program (CSP) grants. In a press conference, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan voiced his support …


NACSA Calls on Washington State Governor to Save Charter Schools

Over the past three years, Washington’s public officials have worked carefully to implement the state’s new charter school law. It is because of their work that more than 1,200 children throughout the …


A Step Forward for Charter School Quality in Texas

Yesterday the Texas Senate passed SB 2 with a resounding 30-1 vote.  The Senate should be applauded for passing a strong bill that will expand opportunity and improve the quality of charter …


Real Parent Empowerment without a War

There has been a lot of heated rhetoric over the spread of so-called “parent trigger” or “parent petition” laws which allow parents and in some cases teachers to vote to restructure the …


Playing Political Football with Kids’ Lives

NACSA’s president and CEO, Greg Richmond, has a op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times arguing that charter schools are being used in Chicago’s “school wars” in ways that only serve adult interests and harm kids. While …


Protecting Student and Public Interests

In a recent article from Renee Schoof at McClatchy, NACSA’s Alex Medler weighed in on a provision in a charter school bill in North Carolina that would allow charter schools discretion over “whether …


Helping Charter Schools Better Serve English Language Learners

This week the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released Serving English Language Learners:  A Toolkit for Public Charter Schools. This timely resource is designed to provide charter school leaders with clear guidance …


School Choice for All

While most of the education-related news coming out of Philadelphia lately has been about school closures similar to those just announced in Chicago, there is other work going on that has the …


Scaling Quality, Closing Failure

A new report, Searching for Excellence: A Five-City, Cross-State Comparison of Charter School Quality, by researchers at Public Impact and published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute examines charter school performance in five cities, Albany, Chicago, …


Postcard from the Statehouse: St. Paul, MN

Hello from a chilly St. Paul, Minnesota!  Earlier this week, the House Education Committee chose to incorporate into an omnibus bill, HF 998, legislation that would create a closure provision for charter …


Core Principles and Essential Practices

This week NACSA released the second edition of its Index of Essential Practices.  The Index articulates a set of practices for authorizers that can significantly improve the quality of their work—and in turn …


Accountability in Minnesota

Check out the new op-ed from Al Fan of Charter School Partners and NACSA’s Alex Medler on the need for greater accountability for the state’s charter schools. “A bi-partisan bill is making …