National Charter Schools Week (May 10 to 16) rightly focuses our attention on the millions of students attending public charter schools. Less attention goes to the federal program that helped make much of that growth possible.
Today, charter schools are often treated as a partisan education fight. But the federal Charter Schools Program, or CSP, has a more practical, bipartisan story. Congress created it in 1994 as part of the Improving America’s Schools Act, the Clinton-era reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Created to help launch new charter schools, replicate strong models, and support facilities financing, CSP remains a modest federal tool with a large public purpose: helping communities create more quality K–12 public school options.
It remains the only federal program specifically dedicated to expanding public charter school choice nationwide. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools describes CSP as a catalyst that helps educators and communities create new public school options rather than a federal effort to run schools from Washington.
