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Thursday, September 29, 2016

Washington state awarded grant to support growth of charter schools


Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction announced that Washington state was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to help support the growth of its charter schools.

The Department’s Charter Schools Program (CSP), which provides funding for high-quality public charter schools, awarded the grant. It will total $6,973,684 during the next three school years, starting in 2016-17.

“We know from the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision that schools aren’t being funded equitably by the state,” said Randy Dorn, superintendent of public instruction. 
“And that includes our charter schools. They are relatively new for us and they need support and guidance to meet their goals. If the state is going to have charter schools, we need to make sure they are given the resources they need to keep providing high-quality education to their students. The grant will help that happen.”

The grant’s purpose is to support the growth of new, high-quality public school options, including charter schools, across the state. That will be done through additional professional development and for curricula and classroom materials, as well as for financial assistance to planning, design, and initially implement new charter schools in Washington.

“The law doesn’t allow for the spending of local levies on charter schools,” said Joshua Halsey, executive director of the Washington state Charter School Commission. “This money will help those schools increase student achievement of students attending charter schools, especially educationally disadvantaged students who have historically struggled in traditional public school settings.”

The grant will be administered by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the State Board of Education, the Charter School Commission and Spokane Public Schools.



1 comment:

  1. So the USDOE gives $70 million to Ohio for its privatized charter schools despite massive fraud, and $7 million to WA State for charter schools that have questionable legal status (funding-wise) and are engaged in a questionable funding arrangement via Mary Walker School District in rural E. Washington, yet they won't fully fund our special needs kids via IDEA. Makes perfect sense.

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