The purpose of the program is to provide federal funding to state or local education agencies that manage the development and execution of charter schools within the USA.
However, Albert Shanker transformed the idea into creating entire charter-based schools while he was president of the American Federation of Teachers, from 1974 to 1997.
[3] Generally, states that are poorer and have more powerful teachers' unions lobbying groups are less likely to pass charter school legislation.
[4] Today's charter schools are centered within urban areas, and generally accept a higher proportion of low-achieving, low-income students.
The creation of these management organizations develops from the philosophy that there needs to be a way to quickly replicate the success of charter schools if they are truly going to transform education.
[7] Ray Budde, in his 1996 article "The Evolution of the Charter Concept" explained that while the stakeholders in a traditional public school district may not be inclined to introduce reforms for altruistic or idealistic reasons, they might "restructure the establishment if they felt that they were under severe pressure and that not changing would have more serious consequences than changing.
In 1994, under the Clinton administration, the basic Charter Schools Program (CSP) was created as an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
The purpose of the program was to provide funds to State Education Agencies (SEA) in order to create and support charter schools.
)[15] In 2010, the Obama administration renewed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (which includes the Charter School Program), but with strengthened accountability measures.
"[18] Stakeholders seem to uphold this consensus, as shown in a study conducted by the Columbia Teachers College of parental evaluations of traditional public schools and charters in Washington D.C.