The agency plans to release $33 million in grants that it says were stalled by the previous administration.
The U.S. Department of Education announced that it is easing regulatory measures pertaining to grant applications for charter schools as part of a school choice expansion.
The department is withdrawing two “burdensome and misaligned” notices for two grant programs aimed at charter schools, it said in a Jan. 31 statement. These notices were published during the last days of the Biden administration and, according to the agency, imposed “excessive regulatory burdens and promoted discriminatory practices.”
Charter schools are publicly funded but privately managed. These schools do not have to follow state or district requirements and can set up their own curriculum and regulations, but they operate according to a set of rules, or “charter.”
The department intends to issue revised Notices Inviting Application (NIA) that will have a “more streamlined application process.”
The new NIAs will evaluate applicants for the grant programs based on their alignment with the Trump administration’s commitment to “expanding high-quality charter schools, reducing federal micromanagement, eliminating ideological overreach, and empowering families with greater educational choice,” according to the statement.
The department also said it is “fast-tracking” the release of $33 million in grants under the Charter School Program (CSP) that were earlier stalled by the Biden administration.
The grants will expand “high-quality educational opportunities” and are prohibited from spending funds on “DEI initiatives or race-based discriminatory practices,” the department said.
Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for the department’s office of communications and outreach, said the department is seeking to expand access to educational options for students while ensuring federal resources are used effectively.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 29 that called for “expanding educational freedom and opportunity for families.”
The order states: “Parents want and deserve the best education for their children. But too many children do not thrive in their assigned, government-run K-12 school.”
The order cited the recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report, which showed that “70 percent of 8th graders were below proficient in reading, and 72 percent were below proficient in math.”
