REL#04-56 CONTACT: Tina Woo Jung
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PHONE: 916/319-0818
June 29, 2004 E-MAIL: tjung@cde.ca.gov

CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION RECEIVES
$75 MILLION FEDERAL CHARTER SCHOOL GRANT

SACRAMENTO – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell today joined U.S. Department of Education Secretary Rod Paige as he awarded the California Department of Education (CDE) a $75 million grant from the federal Public Charter Schools Grant Program.

The grant will be used in the development of up to 254 charter schools by 2007. Ten percent of this grant money will help the state’s charter schools share with other public schools, their innovative ideas, programs, and strategies that have helped children succeed academically.

“We are working hard to support the development of high-quality charter schools, hold them accountable, and help them become the laboratories for best educational practices that they are meant to be,” said O’Connell. “California was among the first states in the nation to embrace and develop a strong tradition of support for charter schools, and this grant will help them further improve, resulting in increased student achievement for all our public schools.”

O’Connell officially received the first of three installments in the amount of $24.7 million at an event today with Secretary Paige, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and California Secretary for Education Richard Riordan at the Sacramento Charter High School in Sacramento. O’Connell thanked Secretary Paige and the U.S. Department of Education for working closely with CDE to obtain the grant. California received the largest grant amount of the 10 states awarded, which also is the largest award in the grant program’s history.

California currently has approximately 471 charter schools that offer a rich variety of educational focuses and alternative classroom strategies for students. O’Connell created the first-ever Charter School Division last year within CDE to put an even greater emphasis on the role of charter schools in the state. For more information about California’s charter schools, please visit http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cs/.

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