While Democrats and many education lobbyists have described the so-called TAGs as vouchers, Republican sponsors dispute that, noting that schools would be the ones to choose which providers' names appeared on lists of potential tutors. Mr. Hunter said, in supporting the House-passed bill, the White House may be hoping to gain leverage for removing the TAG provision. The charter school bill, HR 2616, would give incentives to states that allow autonomy but have a system to hold charter schools academically accountable. It increases the time a charter school can receive a federal grant, from three to five years. Some Democrats and educators, though, have cautioned against putting too much hope into the relatively new movement.
Charter schools receive public funding but operate free of most state regulations.
While the bill that would reconfigure the federal charter school program has yet to pass the Senate, more funding for charter schools is already in the fiscal 1998 budget. Read the America Reads Challenge , from the U.S. Department of Education Web site.