Dive Brief:
- Despite a legislative agreement to lift the cap on charter schools, over 100,000 students remain on waiting lists for charter schools, according to Texas Charter Schools Association Executive Director David Dunn, who spoke before the state's Senate Education Committee on Monday.
- In 2013, the legislature agreed to gradually increase the cap on the number of charter schools from 215 to 305 by 2019.
- There are still less than 200 charter schools in Texas, however, charter networks can use one charter to operate multiple campuses.
Dive Insight:
Dunn's assertion would imply the lifting of the cap was not enough, since so many students are still waiting to get into charter schools. That said, since the state hasn't even met it's pre-law cap, that doesn't exactly seem true, either. Currently, 200,000 students are enrolled in Texas charter schools, an increase of 32,000 since last year's agreement.