Charter schools receive enrollment growth funding

By December 17, 2024 News

All NC public charter schools have now received their enrollment growth funding for the 2024-25 school year. This is a major achievement! The Coalition worked extremely hard to get this funding passed, and so we wanted to share a timeline and recap of our advocacy efforts below.

This past summer, it became clear that the legislature was unlikely to pass a budget in 2024. While this had financial implications for numerous things, the Coalition was particularly concerned about public charter schools with enrollment growth. These schools, we knew–along with district schools–would not be funded for growth without a state budget, given the shift to a “funding in arrears” model.

Coalition advocacy begins

As a result, Lindalyn Kakadelis, the Coalition’s executive director, and our Government Relations Team, moved quickly to reach out to lawmakers to advocate for our schools. Lindalyn first met with Representative Jeffrey Elmore on July 31, and the Coalition began a concerted push to pass legislation with growth funding as a line item.

Lawmakers and House Bill 10

Growth funding was first placed in a bill, House Bill 10, on September 9. (Read more about House Bill 10 from EdNC.) Lawmakers passed the bill quickly, sending it to Governor Cooper on September 11. However, he vetoed the bill on September 20, objecting to another bill provision. Nearly two months later, on November 19, the House voted to override the Governor’s veto. The Senate followed suit the next day, on November 20.

School Business efforts at the Department of Public Instruction

In addition to advocacy work with lawmakers, the Coalition reached out to the Department of Public Instruction’s School Business Office. Our team encouraged DPI leaders to send the money to schools as soon as possible.
We are so pleased that, within three weeks of lawmakers’ vote to override the Governor’s veto, all of the growth funding was released to charter schools across the state.  We are grateful to Alexis Schauss and her team at DPI for getting funding out so quickly. Thank you for helping to achieve this goal!

If you missed the Coalition’s statement thanking lawmakers for the veto override, you can find it here.

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Kristen Blair

Author Kristen Blair

Kristen Blair is the communications director for the North Carolina Coalition for Charter Schools.

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