| Notes |
President Clinton and Richard Riley led this part of the charter saga, with the ultimate victory of passing the Charter School Expansion Act of 1998.128 With the popularity of charter schools sweeping the nation, the strategy of federal political activism would eventually contribute to the success of Clinton’s long-term fulfillment of passing charter legislation to help create 3,000 charters by the end of 2000. Congressional and Presidential support for charters transcends rhetoric, and is best understood while reviewing annual appropriations for the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP). Figure 1.2 includes data collected from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Table 3: Charter School Program Funding (FY95-FY15)129
Fiscal Years
CSP Appropriations


FY15
$253,100,000
FY14
$248,100,000
FY13
$241,500,000
FY12
$254,836,000
FY11
$255,519,000
FY10
$256,031,000
FY09
$216,031,000
FY08
$211,031,000
FY07
$214,783,000
FY06
$214,783,000
FY05
$216,000,000
128 Charter School Expansion Act of 1998, Pub. L. No. 105-278, 112 Stat. 2682 (1998).
129 National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, “Charter School Program Funding: Fiscal Year 1995-2015.” Accessed on December 12, 2015.
62
FY04
$218,000,000
FY03
$198,000,000
FY02
$200,000,000
FY01
$190,000,000
FY00
$145,000,000
FY99
$100,000,000
FY98
$80,000,000
FY97
$50,000,000
FY96
$18,000,000
FY95
$6,000,000
Passage of IASA marks the completion of a shared vision by two U.S. Senators who personify the concept of policy entrepreneurship. It is my belief that the story of Durenberger and Lieberman represents the type of unique strategy and leadership that took place at all levels of civic society to bring charter schools into the mainstream. |