Good morning, CharterFolk.
I suppose we should have seen it coming – one last parting shot at charter schools from the Biden Administration.
Last spring, you may remember that the Administration released its Notices Inviting Applications (NIAs) under the federal Charter Schools Program so late that many of us wondered whether they would release them at all.
To be precise, one was posted on April 24 and the other on May 3…
…which created such a compressed timeframe for developing applications to meet new requirements that many had to scramble, resulting in weaker proposals than they would have been had applicants been given sufficient time.
The outcome?
A suboptimal round of awards—which, in my view, was exactly what they wanted.
Anything to slow CharterFolk down.
So, what did they do this week?
You guessed it.
The exact opposite.
This time, they released the notices far earlier than ever before.
And instead of spacing them out by ten days, as they did last year, they found a way to release both the CMO competition…
… and the SEA competition …
… on the very same day.
Why?
Because the day they posted the notices was the very last day the Administration had to do so. Rather than allowing the incoming Administration—clearly much more supportive of charter schools—to issue notices more favorable to applicants, they made sure to stick it to us one last time.
They embedded all the same obstacles they imposed last spring, ensuring that charter schools would remain hindered as long as possible.
Like a last minute pardon, only in reverse.
A last minute gesture meant to inflict a final increment of pain on charter schools before they shut the door behind themselves.
We’ll see what the new administration does. I understand they’re exploring legal ways to re-issue the NIAs themselves.
And look, I know there’s all sorts of strong feelings about the changes in Washington this week.
I won’t wade into all that.
But I will call balls and strikes.
However the new administration turns out for charter schools, one thing is certain: the last one was an unmitigated disaster for us.
A disaster that lasted until its very last hours.