Empower Charter School Educators to Lead Act
Sponsored By: Representative Letlow
In Committee
Summary
More state support and pre-charter planning grants for educator-led charter schools. The bill reorganizes the federal charter school grant program to let states provide technical help, offer short-term loan or facility support, and fund planning subgrants for educator-led developers.
Show full summary
- Educator-led developers: Teams with at least 54 months of school-based experience and an initial community-need plan can receive pre-charter planning subgrants up to $100,000 to prepare applications or secure financing.
- State entities and authorizers: Can give expanded technical assistance, build capacity for fiscal oversight and audits, and at their discretion establish revolving loan funds or help developers find facilities.
- Federal funding rules: The program’s main share is reduced from 90% to 82%, a distribution cap is adjusted to up to 10%, and up to 5% of funds can be reserved to support pre-charter planning.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
More planning grants for charter developers
This bill would create pre-charter planning subgrants of up to $100,000 per subgrantee for educator-led charter developers who plan to apply to an authorized chartering agency or funders. Leaders must have at least 54 months of school-based experience and a plan showing the community's educational needs and how the proposed school would meet them. To fund this, the bill would reduce the main program share from 90% to 82%, change a previous "not less than 7 percent" rule to a cap of "not more than 10 percent," and allow up to 5% of funds to be reserved for these planning grants. These changes would reallocate existing program funds and would not itself raise total program dollars.
State support for charter developers
This bill would let the State provide technical assistance to eligible charter applicants and to authorized public chartering agencies. The State could work with authorizers to build capacity for fiscal oversight and to conduct audits of charter schools. The State could, at its discretion, fund a revolving loan fund or similar mechanism to cover applicants' expenses before subgrant funds arrive. The State could also assist eligible applicants in locating and accessing school facilities.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Letlow
LA • R
Cosponsors
Tokuda
HI • D
Sponsored 5/15/2025
Kiley (CA)
CA • R
Sponsored 5/15/2025
Case
HI • D
Sponsored 5/15/2025
Ciscomani
AZ • R
Sponsored 5/15/2025
Timmons
SC • R
Sponsored 5/20/2025
McDonald Rivet
MI • D
Sponsored 6/2/2025
James
MI • R
Sponsored 6/2/2025
Carter (LA)
LA • D
Sponsored 6/10/2025
Calvert
CA • R
Sponsored 6/17/2025
Messmer
IN • R
Sponsored 6/25/2025
Cleaver
MO • D
Sponsored 7/14/2025
Meuser
PA • R
Sponsored 9/2/2025
Harder (CA)
CA • D
Sponsored 9/2/2025
Carter (GA)
GA • R
Sponsored 9/2/2025
Cole
OK • R
Sponsored 9/3/2025
Lee (FL)
FL • R
Sponsored 9/8/2025
Baumgartner
WA • R
Sponsored 9/8/2025
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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