St. Paul, Minnesota

City Academy: Charter Schools Making a Difference in Children's Lives. President Clinton will celebrate National Charter Schools Week by visiting City Academy, the nation's first charter school. Established in 1992, the school was created for at-risk high school age students who can thrive in a small learning community and need extra support. City Academy serves approximately 100 demographically diverse students. While at City Academy the President will discuss the future of the charter movement and participate in an online webside chat with high school students from around the country. When the President was first elected, City Academy was the nation's only charter school. Today there are more than 1,700 charter schools nationwide. In addition thirty-six states and the District of Columbia have passed charter school laws. Since 1994, the federal government has invested almost $400 million in charter schools and the President's budget this year provides an additional $175 million to help reach the President's goal of 3,000 charter schools by 2002. Charter schools are public schools that are granted some freedom from regulations governing other public schools in exchange for a commitment to meet or exceed a state's academic standards.

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