In February 2011, Senate Bill 8 was passed, lifting the 100 charter school cap put in place by the previous 1996 Charter School Act. The cap was lifted in order to receive federal funding from the Race to the Top program. This led to a rapid increase in charter schools across the state, which have demonstrated in recent years to be increasingly more segregated than traditional public schools, and in North Carolina, serve primarily white students. In these districts, charter schools effectively segregate traditional public schools.