SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today announced the awarding of 67 federal Public Charter Schools Grant Program (PCSGP) grants totaling $23.7 million. For a list of the grantees, please visit Funding Results: Public Charter Schools.

"These grants will help us develop additional high-quality charter schools to serve as laboratories of education innovation," O'Connell said. "Models of programs and practices are especially needed at a time when we are asking our students to perform at higher levels, and as the rigor of our curriculum and student accountability under federal law increases. The grantees were selected because they had the best plans to open and operate charter schools to address these concerns."

The PCSGP is administered by the Charter Schools Division of the California Department of Education. The grants are awarded to charter school developers and charter schools that are most likely to succeed in the establishment of high-quality schools and that will provide public school choice to students whose assigned traditional public schools have been identified for Program Improvement, corrective action, or restructuring under federal law. 

The grant amounts range between $150,000 to $450,000. Payments are linked to performance, enrollment, and successful completion of grant projects. Preference was given to applicants seeking to operate charter schools that compete with underperforming traditional public schools. 

Of the total 205 applicants, the 67 awardees were selected through a competitive process and were judged based on the quality of their plans, proposed budgets, ability to meet their goals, and ability to evaluate their programs in measurable terms.

This round of funding is the last of a three-year federal grant of $81 million originally awarded in June 2004 to the California Department of Education. California currently has more than 600 charter schools. O'Connell created the first-ever Charter School Division in 2003 to put an even greater emphasis on the expanding role of charter schools in the state.  For more information on the Public Charter Schools Grant Program, please visit Past Funding Profile (ID 736): Public Charter Schools.