Public-Private Charter Grant to Add 30 Schools, 15,000 Students in Florida

A $30 million fund to support the expansion of high-performing charter schools in Florida was announced Tuesday.

The public-private partnership between the nonprofit Charter School Growth Fund and the state Department of Education will help create 30 new charters to serve 15,000 more students in persistently low-achieving neighborhoods.

Funding comes from $20 million in federal Race to the Top dollars along with $10 million in private philanthropic funds to be raised by CSGF.

The program will use a "blind, rigorous and competitive examination process to determine the schools and organizations that will be funded through these investments with particular emphasis on investment candidates with quality academic achievement, potential growth and financial sustainability," the DOE said in a statement.

There are high-performing charter schools in Florida that are already doing an excellent job serving Floridas neediest students, said Darryl Cobb, partner and vice president of Florida-CSGF. With new resources, these schools can broaden their impact and serve more students.

Schools applying now for the fund could be eligible to open as early as August 2012.

CSGF has invested in more than 29 high-performing charter school networks that operate approximately 280 schools and serve more than 100,000 students nationally since 2005.

Schools supported by CSGF serve 75 percent low-income and 91 percent minority students, and are typically the highest-performing schools in their cities. Ninety-five percent of CSGF-supported schools outperform comparable district schools in reading and math.