Sponsors (7)
The bill directs more funding, flexibility, and operator input toward charter school expansion and facility support—potentially increasing high‑quality seats and reducing paperwork—while trading off reduced discretionary funds for other education priorities, risks to accountability and equity, and advantages for larger, experienced operators.
Charter schools and students: increases minimum federal reservation floors (charter facilities from 12.5% to ≥15% and national activities from 22.5% to ≥25%), directing more predictable baseline funding to facility needs and national programs.
Students, teachers, and charter operators: expands permissible uses of grant funds (operations, facility repairs, hiring, program expansions), enabling more seats, staffing, and local flexibility to meet student needs.
Prospective charter operators and CMOs, and students in underserved states: increases access to competitive replication and expansion grants (including interstate plans) and shifts more funds into competitive awards, supporting start-up and expansion of high‑quality charter seats.
State and local education programs and students: weakening of accountability and predictability through relaxed consistency requirements, removal of multi-year financial/operating model requirement, and increased Secretary discretion may reduce oversight of grant use and long‑term fiscal safeguards.
Other Department of Education programs and students: raising reservation floors for charter facilities and national activities reduces discretionary funds available for other priorities and competitive grants across the Department.
Small/new charter operators, rural communities, and some students: shifting more money to competitive grants and capping non‑competitive supports favors experienced organizations and large CMOs, disadvantaging smaller operators and reducing technical assistance that helps new charters succeed.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Revises charter‑school grant rules: raises reserved shares for facilities and national activities, adds permissible curricular‑expansion uses, mandates consultation, and limits regulatory/paperwork requirements.
Introduced January 15, 2026 by Ryan Mackenzie · Last progress January 15, 2026
Amends federal charter school grant rules to shift how grant dollars are reserved and used, expand permissible uses, tighten consultation and paperwork limits on the Department of Education, and change some application and eligibility rules. It raises the minimum share of funds reserved for charter school facilities and for national activities, creates a new allowable state subgrant purpose to support curricular additions or expansions that enable more students to enroll, makes consultation requirements mandatory, broadens paperwork-protection to include State entities, and applies the changes to grants awarded on or after enactment (with an opt-in for existing grantees). The changes affect the Department of Education, State entities that receive charter grants, eligible charter schools and applicants, and students served by charter schools. The bill increases reserved funding for facilities and national activities, narrows some technical-assistance set‑asides, restricts the Department’s ability to impose nonstatutory regulatory requirements, and inserts an unspecified change to the statutory definition of “charter school.”