FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, DC – Magnet Schools of America is deeply disappointed by the decision of the House Appropriations Committee to propose no funding for the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) next year as part of a package of sweeping and draconian cuts in funding to the U.S. Department of Education included in the proposed FY24 Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill that was marked up at the subcommittee level today.
“We urge Congress to consider serious proposals for education funding, not political stunts masquerading as fiscal policy,” said Ramin Taheri, CEO of Magnet Schools of America. “As a bipartisan organization that puts the success of students first, Magnet Schools of America welcomes practical, bipartisan solutions to the pressing issues in American education today. This appropriations bill, sadly, doesn’t qualify.”
Any proposal to defund MSAP would have a dramatic impact on national efforts to advance a proven model of public school choice — magnet schools — that provides options that students and families want and offers a real solution to segregation and concentrated poverty in our schools. Magnet Schools of America urges Congress to reject these proposed spending cuts to national education programs, which have no basis in evidence, and take politics out of education policy.
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Magnet Schools of America (MSA) is a nonprofit education association that represents more than 4,340 magnet schools serving nearly 3.5 million students across 46 states and the District of Columbia. MSA was founded in 1986 and authorized as a 501(c)3 in 1994. It supports and serves the leaders and teachers of magnet and theme-based schools, while promoting the development of new magnet programs.
Raise the level of performance consistent throughout school districts nationwide and creates a platform from which all magnet schools can flourish. Magnet Schools of America’s national certification process is designed to recognize the hard work of the best magnet schools in the nation and to help them as they grow.
