Remove Statewide Caps on Charter Schools
One of the biggest roadblocks facing the expansion of school choice in Maine today is the cap that the state legislature has placed on the total number of charter schools allowed to operate, as well as on the total number of students that are able to be enrolled at a virtual charter school. When Maine first approved charter schools in 2011, the legislature declared a 10-year transition period, during which time only 10 charter schools could “be approved by authorizers other than local school boards.” In the decade since, total enrollment in Maine charter schools had grown upwards of 2,500 students in 2019. By October 1, 2020, 562 students were sitting on a waitlist.