Isle gets $4.4 million Hawaii has been awarded nearly $4.4 million in federal grants to help set up new public charter schools, the U.S. Department of Education announced yesterday.
to help set up more
charter schools
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"We're really excited," said Charles Higgins, public charter schools program specialist for the state Department of Education. "We can have 23 additional charter schools in Hawaii, and this will help tremendously in establishing those."
The $4,368,421 awarded to Hawaii will be made available on a competitive basis as grants to only existing public schools that want to convert to charter status, he said.
The state hopes to offer about $100,000 per year to each successful applicant, Higgins said.
"The money can only be used to create new charter schools," he said.
"These are seed moneys. They cannot be used for daily operations."
Hawaii has 25 charter schools, and the Legislature authorized a total of 48 earlier this year.
A previous federal grant of $450,000 over a three-year period went to existing charter schools, he said.
"We were very, very lucky to be included in the next three-year cycle," Higgins said.
The state expects to solicit proposals this month, and applicants will probably have until January to submit their proposals, he said.
Higgins could not speculate on how many or which schools might be interested in becoming charter schools.
Charter schools are public schools operating under contracts, or charters, that are created by groups of parents, teachers, administrators and others who want to provide alternatives within the public school system.
Of the state's 25 charter schools, about half are based on Hawaiian culture and language, and the remainder are "all unique," Higgins said.
"That's the purpose of charter schools: to create innovative schools that can be a catalyst for change in our system and improve the quality of education that we have in Hawaii."
The Hawaii funds are part of $71 million in new grants for 18 states announced yesterday by U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Another $119 million is also being awarded in second- and third-year funding.
Higgins said Hawaii is in line to get another $4.7 million in the second year of the grant, and another $4.3 million in the third year.
He said operational funding for charter schools still comes out of the DOE's budget, but the legislative auditor determines the amount every year to avoid accusations of political favoritism toward DOE-administered schools.
In response to criticism that the DOE has stymied the growth of charter schools, Higgins said that charter school students "are still public school students. They are all our students. We're here to educate (all) children the best we can."
The Associated Press and Star-Bulletin reporter Pat Gee contributed to this report.
State of Hawaii
State Department of Education
