Thanks to Leonie Haimson for assembling this information about the US ED plans to spread charter money.
US ED announces more funding for charter schools nationwide, including 5 NYC charters, & yet another $3.2M for Success which has received many millions already from the feds as well as from private sources.
and https://innovation.ed.gov/what-we-do/charter-schools/
Charter apps and reviewer comments here: https://innovation.ed.gov/what-we-do/charter-schools/charter-schools-program-grants-for-replications-and-expansion-of-high-quality-charter-schools/awards/
U.S. Department of Education Awards $253 Million in Grants to Expand Charter Schools
September 28, 2017
Contact: Press Office, (202) 401-1576, press@ed.gov
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced that The Expanding Opportunity through Quality Charter Schools Program (Charter Schools Program or CSP) has awarded new grants this week to fund the creation and expansion of public charter schools across the nation, totaling approximately $253 million.
“These grants will help supplement state-based efforts to give students access to more options for their education,” said Secretary DeVos. “What started as a handful of schools in Minnesota has blossomed into nearly 7,000 charter schools across the country. Charter schools are now part of the fabric of American education, and I look forward to seeing how we can continue to work with states to help ensure more students can learn in an environment that works for them.”
The following grants slates were awarded:
The State Entities program awarded approximately $144.7 million in new grants to nine states.
The Replication and Expansion of High-Quality Charter Schools program awarded approximately $52.4 million in new grants to 17 non-profit charter management organizations.
The Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities program awarded approximately $56.25 million in new grants to six non-profit organizations and two state agencies.
These grants are awarded to state educational agencies and other state entities, charter management organizations (CMOs) and other non-profit organizations and represent the first cohort of new awards under the program’s new authorizing statute, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Please see below for the list of grantees, first year grant amounts and total recommended funding (contingent on future Congressional appropriations).
State Entity Grantees:
Grantee Name FY 17 Funding (Year 1 and 2 Funding) Total Recommended Funding
Indiana Department of Education $24,002,291 $59,966,575
Maryland State Department of Education $5,490,859 $17,222,222
Minnesota Department of Education $22,381,611 $45,757,406
Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board* $4,240,819 $15,000,000
New Mexico Public Education Department $6,358,693 $22,507,805
Oklahoma Public School Resource Center, Inc.* $4,264,870 $16,499,722
Rhode Island Department of Education $1,953,000 $6,000,000
Texas Education Agency $38,034,535 $59,164,996
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction $37,954,114 $95,777,775
Total $144,680,792 $331,896,501
* Eligible applicants under this program are state entities. A state entity is defined under ESSA as a state educational agency; a state charter school board; a Governor of a state; or a charter school support organization.
CMO Grantees:
Grantee Name State** FY17 Funding Total Recommended Funding
Ascend Learning, Inc. NY $3,661,357 $9,484,885
Brooke Charter Schools MA $353,747 $836,136
Eagle Academy Public Charter School DC $449,066 $812,885
East Harlem Tutorial Program NY $542,640 $2,781,280
Environmental Charter Schools CA $566,063 $900,000
Family Life Academy Charter Schools, Inc. NY $739,260 $900,000
Fortune School of Education CA $1,350,600 $2,043,100
Freedom Preparatory Academy, Inc. TN $1,451,301 $4,297,000
Great Oaks Foundation, Inc. NY $1,958,400 $3,834,000
Hiawatha Academies MN $1,121,400 $1,875,000
IDEA Public Schools TX $26,316,168 $67,243,986
New Paradigm for Education, Inc MI $2,365,400 $5,084,100
Rocketship Education CA $5,090,134 $12,582,678
Success Academy Charter Schools, Inc. NY $3,225,240 $6,130,200
The Freedom and Democracy Schools Foundation, Inc. MD $603,003 $1,533,528
University Prep Inc. CO $1,360,730 $3,734,750
Voices College-Bound Language Academies CA $1,258,415 $2,699,999
Total:
$52,412,924 $126,773,527
**State reflects where the organization is based; school expansion sites funded under this grant may differ.
Credit Enhancement Grantees:
Grantee Name State** FY17 and Total Project Funding
Building Hope…A Charter Schools Facilities Fund DC $8,000,000
California School Finance Authority CA $8,000,000
Center for Community Self-Help NC $8,000,000
Charter Schools Development Corporation MD $5,000,000
Hope Enterprise Corporation MS $8,000,000
Low Income Investment Fund CA $8,000,000
Massachusetts Development Finance Agency MA $8,000,000
Raza Development Fund AZ $3,250,000
Total
$56,250,000
**State reflects where the organization is based; school expansion sites funded under this grant may differ.
Additional information regarding these grant programs and awards, including copies of grantee applications, may be found at: https://innovation.ed.gov/what-we-do/charter-schools/
I hope we won’t hear from any of the “progressives” who agree with DeVos about charters. She knows exactly what she is doing. Funding schools to compete with and undermine community public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Remember when the GOP had a plank in their platform to do away with the Department of Education. remember when education was a state’s rights issue for the GOP? Remember when the GOP was … the GOP and not some radical right organization filled with fringe actors?
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One has to admire the US Department of Education for not even pretending to care about public schools.
Go look at the website. There isn’t a single thing on there that talks about how they add value to public schools. You know where you find all the public schools? In the “ed tech” section. That’s where they pitch ed tech product to public school districts.
If you dropped in from Mars and observed the federal governments approach to K-12 education you would assume 10% of schools were public schools and 90% of schools were charters and private schools.
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Chiara,
Please post something for once.
We are not at the apocalypse
Your ceaseless negativism is mirroring Charles
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Diane, I think its time you realized that Chiara is a fake, quite possibly a computer posting crap to poison the readers and the posters here on your site. Evidence is that Chiara does not respond to any critique or anything!
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Oh for pity’s sake, Chiara is a fake? Who the hell are you? Chiara has been posting here for years and has made many very valid points. What’s your point?
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I agree with dienne.
Chiara may be posting a lot of negative comments (OTOH, she probably has a very good reason to, since I believe she lives in Ohio, and Ohio is an absolute mess as far as their cheating charter schools are concerned).
But she has been posting here for a very long time. Unlike newbie “Fake News Chiara.” Who in the ever-living he!! is she (or he)? I would wonder if this person is in the pay of the crooked charter industry in Ohio. It would not surprise me at all if this were the case.
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I agree with Dienne, too (and goodness knows we don’t always agree). I can understand Chiara’s frustration and negativity – especially if she lives in Ohio where the charter industry can apparently be publicly outed as corrupt and still get to do exactly as it pleases and set the agenda.
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NYC public school parent, it’s interesting that we have both “Fake News Chiara” and “Chiara a Computer?……..” saying the same things.
Could they be the same person, with a sock puppet? Hmmmmmmmmm…….
I’m guessing “yes.”
I am thinking that this person either works for Betsy DeVos, or works for the cheating charter industry in Ohio and does not like the fact that Chiara has called them out for their financial fraud.
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I love “non public” schools, too, this bizarre language. They’re afraid to say “private”?
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Good GAWD! Wonder what DeVoodoo’s cut is?
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When DeVos and Trump failed to get support for their voucher schemes in congress, they settled on more charter expansion, which is an easier pill for lots of legislators to swallow.
They need to ensure that the funds will be accounted for as the charter industry is engulfed in waste and fraud. Taxpayers should be complaining to their representatives about how funds go missing or are misused. They should also question why so much money is going to charters when the results are spotty at best. Federal funds should also support public schools, not just charters. If the goal this money is to improve programs for poor students, the charters should have to serve all poor students that apply., not just the cherry picked “strivers” or white middle class students.
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Amen, sister!!!
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Ever more money chasing every fewer people who actually want to open charters.
Except for the growth in charter chains, the pattern over last few years is clear: there are fewer people stepping forward to open new charter schools.
From March 2017 Ed Week
SOURCE
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/charterschoice/2017/03/why_arent_more_charter_schools_opening.html
The number of new charter schools plummeted in the 2015-16 school year, with 329 new charters setting up shop, compared to nearly twice that many—640—that opened just four years earlier.
Why have the numbers of new charter schools dropped off so sharply in recent years, even as student enrollment in charters continues to increase year over year?
It’s a big question that one major player [Natl Association of Charter School Authorizers] n the charter school sector—those with the power to approve new schools and shut down failing ones—has pledged to answer, paying careful attention to any part they might be playing in the slowdown.\
I’ve been looking at this phenomenon for a while. More telling is the absolute growth in open charter schools (newly opened MINUS closed charters) has also been declining for years.
NACSA is using the data from Natl Alliance of Public Charter Schools. In stitching together the NAPCS annual “Estimated Public Charter School Enrollment” reports over many years, the trend of fewer openings and more closures is clear.
I put my data set up and graphics on my dwelker.tumblr.com site.
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in short, the corporate charter school industry is running out of crooks and frauds to open new charters.
Conclusion, there aren’t enough crooks and frauds out there to keep this con growing.
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You’re right, Lloyd. Somebody in Congress needs to call out those on the take from the charter industry. Somebody needs to step up and stop the flow of money given without accountability. Now with all this money from the DOE there is be a new feeding frenzy to grab public dollars, and the cycle can begin again. This makes no sense, and it is fiscally irresponsible.
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Dienne and Zorba, check out Chiara’s history posting on this site. The person NEVER responds to any of the posts. Further, this person says the same things over and over and Diane is even asking Chiara now to respond! So now what?
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I admit that it is a little odd how Chiara never replies to responses to her comments. But she’s been posting here for several years, and there’s every indication that she’s a real person who has put at least a couple kids through public school in Ohio. You, on the other hand, suddenly pop out of nowhere and make it your life’s work, using several aliases, to attack her. What’s your deal?
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FLERP!, I would lay odds that somebody is paying this person to post these comments.
Maybe not directly for each comment, but very probably because they work for the charter industry in Ohio in some capacity.
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Dienne and Zorba, check out Chiara’s history posting on this site. The person NEVER responds to any of the posts. Further, this person says the same things over and over and Diane is even asking Chiara now to respond! So now what?
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Speaking of saying the same thing over and over, you just posted the exact same comment twice.
And just who the hell are you, and which charter school company do you work for?
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Zorba, definitely not a scab charter school person believe me I would not work for a charter school if I was starving. With that said, I have been posting and reading on this site for several years now and have read many posts by Chiara. But even DIANE is asking for Chiara to give a response and still no responses?? You do not find it odd that Chiara does not reply to ANY posts directed at her??
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If you want to be taken even halfway seriously, stop changing your username all the time. It makes you look like a complete troll.
And no, I don’t think it’s all that odd that Chiara doesn’t answer back. There are a couple of websites where I will post a comment but I don’t respond to commenters responding to my comments. Mainly because I just don’t want to get into the whole back and forth on those websites. I just post my thoughts, conclusions and experiences, and then I let it go at that. I figure that in those cases, people can take it or leave it.
I think I am now in agreement with SomeDAM poet, who said, on the Jennifer Berkshire regarding the long term DeVos goal thread, that you appear “to be a Democratic party cheerleader who does not like the fact that Chiara does not reserve her criticism for Republicans exclusively.”
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A “Grant” is the new label to help hide graft and fraud. Bill Gates does has been doing it for years through his tax shelter.
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I apologize for my negativity….U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos new grants this week to fund the creation and expansion of public charter schools across the nation, totaling approximately $253 million—in 2015, Jeff Bryant reported….US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s surprise announcement to leave his position in December is making headlines and driving lots of commentary, but an important story lost in the media clutter happened three days before he gave notice.
On that day, Duncan rattled the education policy world with news of a controversial grant of $249 million ($157 the first year) to the charter school industry. …….OK…..it is not as much, and it might be a completely different sort of grant….the media seldom makes anything very clear……..BUT QUIT DISMISSING THE DAMAGE DONE BY GATES AND DUNCAN, using the weak excuse that DeVos is a lot worse.
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A significant difference between DeVos and Duncan-Gates: DeVos is pretty much Trump like, pounding her chest proudly, emphasizing how much damage she is doing to public schools……Duncan Gates style was to sneak it in kind of as an afterthought to other news, hoping it would not be noticed.
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Frankly, I prefer those who act like male baboons screaming and fighting each other, as opposed to the smooth talking, oily types.
At least you know what you’re up against from the beginning with the chest pounders.
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“Fight the battles you can win” – Sun-Tzu. “All warfare is based on deception”- Sun-Tzu.
The pro-voucher forces have realized, that it is virtually impossible to get a federal voucher program through the Congress. Therefore, Sec DeVos has quietly dropped this tactic. However, the states are another matter. Arizona is attempting to expand its ESA program. The pro-voucher forces are going to pour a great deal of money, into the campaign to defeat the upcoming referendum.
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Charles, wherever there is a vote, vouchers will lose. Happily, this is a democracy, though you and DeVos prefer an oligarchy.
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Arizona has ESAs. There will be a referendum, on whether to approve the expansion of the program. I predict that a great deal of money will be spent, both pro and con. If the referendum is defeated, then ESAs will be available to virtually every family in the Grand Canyon State.
Our nation is not a democracy, we are a constitutional republic. A pure democracy is where 51% controls, and the other 49% are subject to the whims of the majority. Fortunately, we have a congress and a president, to “buffer” against the whims of the mob. And we have a court system, to interpret whether legislation is against the constitution.
The majority of people in the Jim Crow south, wanted segregation, and denial of basic rights to blacks. Would you be in favor of returning to majority rule, in the south?
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Irony (or, perhaps not): “Fortune” School of Education, CA- raking IN a fortune:
$1,350, 600; $2,043,100.
If a California reader happens to know anything about this “School of Education,” I’d be interested to hear about it!
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Must be a fraud like Relay
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