Louisiana Awarded $23.9 Million No Child Left Behind Grant to Help Create More Charter Schools
From Education Newsfeed:
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Louisiana a $23.9 million three-year No Child Left Behind grant to help plan, design, and create new charter schools and increase the school choices that parents have to provide their children, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced today.
Today's grant is in addition to the $20.9 million No Child Left Behind Charter Schools Program grant Louisiana received in September to help reopen charter schools damaged by the hurricanes, create 10 new charter schools, and expand existing charter schools to accommodate displaced students.
The U.S. Department of Education also has made more than $1.6 billion in funds in hurricane recovery aid available to reopen schools in the Gulf Coast region and to help educate students across the country who were displaced or impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Louisiana is one of nine states receiving funding through the department's Charter Schools Program (CSP), designed to increase national understanding of the charter school model and to expand the number of charter schools available to the nation's students.
"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," Spellings said.
The department's program is the most prevalent source of start-up funding for charter schools, with nearly two-thirds having received CSP funds during their start-up phase.
Charter schools are independent public schools designed and operated by parents, educators, community leaders, education entrepreneurs and others with a contract, or charter, from a public agency, such as a local or state education agency or an institution of higher education.
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