Education Department wins $13 million grant to help community groups start charter schools
South Carolina has been awarded a $13 million grant to support the creation of additional charter schools over the next three years.
The grant was announced in Columbia today by Anne Hancock, Southeastern Regional Representative for U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. Eight other states joined South Carolina in competing for and eventually winning USDE charter school grants: Louisiana, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New Mexico.
State Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum said the federal grant will help the Palmetto State to expand the number of high-quality charter schools and to exchange information about charter school planning, design and implementation.
“Charter schools let parents, teachers and community members take responsible risks and develop creative and flexible ways of educating children,” Tenenbaum said. “These grant funds will help us create more examples of innovative and accountable schools within the state’s public education system.”
Secretary Spellings said charter schools “are empowering parents with new options in public education, and as additional educational strategies they're helping to raise achievement in all our public schools. That's why we're doing everything we can to support existing ones and help build new ones.”
Charter schools are independent public schools designed and operated by educators, parents, community leaders, educational entrepreneurs and others. Enabled by the General Assembly in 1996, they are sponsored by designated organizations that monitor their quality and effectiveness but allow them to operate outside of the traditional system of public schools. They operate largely free of local mandates, state laws and regulations and are accountable to local school boards.
A new law passed by the General Assembly this year also allows school organizers to apply for their charters through an independent, statewide charter school district.
South Carolina's 27 existing charter schools serve nearly 5,000 public school students, and six additional charter schools are expected to open for 2006-07 (see chart below).
The State Department of Education, which assists community groups trying to create charter schools, estimates that as many as 20 new charters will open over the next two years and that as many as 30 additional groups will begin planning new schools. Tenenbaum said the grant funds would be used to assist local groups with both planning and implementation.
South Carolina is currently completing the third year of a $6.1 million Charter School Program grant won in 2003. The state has awarded 35 sub-grants under that federal grant.
Funds may be used to assist local groups in:
· Planning and designing a charter school program.
· Opening and operating the school, including dissemination of information to the community about the school, buying equipment and educational materials, acquisition or development of curriculum materials and other initial costs that cannot be funded by state or local sources.
The following graphic shows the growth in the number of South Carolina charter schools:
Year Number of charter schools
2001-02 8
2002-03 13
2003-04 19
2004-05 23
2005-06 27
2006-07 33 (projected)