Jessica Schwartz Hahn
703-478-0658 (w)
571-239-3260 (c)
jessica@peithocom.com

NEW HAMPSHIRE PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL LEADERS MEET

SEN. GREGG, SEN. SUNUNU, REP. SHEA-PORTER ON CAPITOL HILL

DURING NATIONAL CHARTER SCHOOLS WEEK

May 5, 2008 -- Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, May 6th during National Charter Schools Week, New Hampshire federal legislators will hear first hand about the growing success of and demand for public charter schools in New Hampshire.

Who:            Eileen Groll Liponis, New Hampshire Public Chartered Schools Association and Deb Byrne, Director, Cocheco Arts & Technology Academy Charter School in Barrington (http://www.catanh.org/) meet with Senator Judd Gregg, Senator John Sununu, and Representative Carol Shea-Porter

When &        Tuesday, May 6th on Capitol Hill

Where:        

                    10:00AM, Office of Rep. Shea-Porter, 1508 Longworth

                    11:00AM, Office of Sen. Gregg, 393 Russell

11:30AM, Office of Sen. Sununu, 111 Russell

What:           Since 2003 ten public charter schools in New Hampshire have grown to serve over 500 students and are growing exponentially with the exciting addition of the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School.  More than half of these students are high school students who were not flourishing and needed another option.  Public charter schools fill that need and provide a public option to keep the maximum number of students engaged and enrolled in public education.   That need fulfills Governor Lynch’s initiative to lower the dropout rate and build the NH economy with more high school graduates. 

Cocheco Arts and Technology Academy (CATA) in Barrington NH is an example of such a high school.  CATA is dedicated to creating an education community where each student thrives, exploring personal interests in an atmosphere that encompasses different learning styles, individual learning opportunities, smaller class sizes and multiple methods of learning assessments. 

While these schools have grown tremendously and provided options for hundreds of students, their fate for next year lies in the hands of the NH Senate Finance Committee who votes this Wednesday May 7th on HB 1642 which would provide the stop gap funding needed for next year.  Permanent sustainable funding is legislated for the 2009-2010 year in SB 539 making this the last crisis funding year for NH public charter schools.  The bill comes to the Senate Finance Committee having passed through House with majority support and the Senate Education Committee with a 6-0 vote in its favor.  In a deficit year, the Committee is looking at all options that would provide no new money to the budget. 

National Charter School Week 2008 will be celebrated May 5 through May 9 with the theme “Growing Excellence.”  Public charter schools around the nation are hosting and participating in a series of activities to mark the movement’s success and growth, and are participating in a dynamic video campaign to create and share with state and federal legislators short videos highlighting the success of their schools. 

In a Capitol Hill Briefing at 10am on Tuesday May 6th (Dirksen, Room 11), the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the leading organization supporting the expansion of quality charter schools, will release results of a new national opinion survey on public charter schools and a compendium of new public charter school statistics.

Nationwide in 40 states and Washington DC, over 4,300 public charter schools enroll more than 1.2 million public school students.  In fall of 2007, 350 more public charter schools opened and an additional 115,000 public school students enrolled in charters. 

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The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (www.publiccharters.org) is the national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the charter school movement.  The Alliance works to increase the number of high performing charter schools available to all families, particularly low-income and minority families who currently do not have access to quality public schools.  The Alliance provides assistance to state charter school associations and resource centers, develops and advocates for improved public policies, and serves as the united voice for this large and diverse movement.