AUSTIN, Texas – July 2, 2024 – The Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced today that the State Board of Education (SBOE) will vote on Commissioner Mike Morath’s recommendation to grant Generation 29 charter schools.
Pending contract approval and the reconciliation of any final contingencies, four Generation 29 charter school applicants are slated to begin serving Texas public school students for the 2025-2026 school year.
The board vetoed granting of a charter to Visionary STEM Academy in Terrell.
Under Senate Bill 2, passed in 2013 by the 83rd Texas Legislature, the Commissioner of Education has the authority to grant new open-enrollment charter schools in Texas and must notify the SBOE of the recommendations. Additionally, under the same bill, the SBOE has 90 days to review and consider the Commissioner’s recommendation. During its June 25-28, 2024 meeting, the SBOE discussed these recommended applicants and voted on Friday, June 28.
With the application process now complete, these four charters will engage in contingency discussions with TEA before contracts are signed. These contingencies may include a review of curriculum alignment to state standards (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills or TEKS) and clarification of policies, staffing, and board bylaws. If contracts are signed with these non-profit public school systems, Texas will have new open-enrollment charter schools ready to serve students in their proposed geographic areas by August 2025.
The Generation 29 applicants participated in public capacity interviews in early May 2024 as part of a multi-step process to determine which applicants TEA believes are prepared to serve students and support family needs.
This year, TEA received 21 applications that underwent a minimum standard review. Applications were then reviewed by external experts in charter school authorization; applicants needed a score of at least 85% to proceed to capacity interviews. After additional reviews by TEA prior to conducting capacity interviews for qualified applicants, Commissioner Morath made his recommendations in May 2024.
The first charter school law was passed in Texas in 1995 allowing for state authorization of new public school options. In 2013, SB 2 (83R) updated charter school laws with best practices for authorizing and increased accountability measures for charter schools. This includes Charter School Performance Frameworks and mandatory closures for poor performance under academic or financial accountability systems.
The Texas Legislature has passed various educational options including magnet schools, state-authorized charters, virtual schools, and district-charter partnerships authorized by independent school districts (ISDs). Currently, about eight percent of Texas's approximately five-and-a-half million public school students attend one of its open-enrollment charter schools across nearly nine hundred campuses.
