MaineBusiness.com

Dr. Joe Nathan, Director of the University of Minnesota Center for School Change will be a special guest at a forum on public charter schools on Monday, August 3. Dr. Nathan is one of the founders of the charter school movement in the U.S., which now enrolls over 1.4 million children in 4,600 charter schools in forty other states.
The Maine Association for Charter Schools (MACS) is hosting the forum at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast at 3:00 to 4:00 pm in Room 132.
Dr. Nathan will discuss lessons learned from the national movement since 1991, and the benefits for Maine of allowing these innovative public education programs. Members of MACS will discuss progress on the proposed law to allow public charter schools in Maine
Maine and nine other states have yet to pass laws allowing charter schools, despite the urgings of President Obama and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. In June, the Maine Senate voted against a charter school bill, though the bill had the support of the State Board of Education, the Department of Education, the Governor, the Maine House, and the Maine PTA.
Without a charter school law, Maine is unlikely to qualify for the $4.3 billion competitive grants available under the “Race to the Top” stimulus funds for public education to be distributed by the US Department of Education next December.
As public schools, charter schools must be non-religious. They are free to parents and open to all children without admissions tests. They offer an innovative educational choice to parents and teachers within the public system of education.
To register for this event, please call 763-3576 or email macs@mainecharterschools.org. FMI, visit www.mainecharterschools.org.