Feds send $16.5M for state charter schools
Oklahoma will receive $16.5 million in federal funds to open and expand charter schools across the state, a funding boost that will significantly increase the number of new charter schools opening in the coming years.
Oklahoma is home to one of nine state entities that were notified Thursday of the Expanding Opportunity Through Quality Charter Schools Program grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
The Oklahoma Public School Resource Center, which is the specific local entity awarded the grant, will receive $16.5 million over the next five years.
“This is pretty big,” said Brent Bushey, executive director of the OPSRC, an Oklahoma City-based nonprofit that works with charter schools and traditional public schools. “The amount for the size of our
state is pretty large.”
The grant will be used to increase the number of charter schools in the state, with an emphasis on serving educationally disadvantaged students. As many as 25 new charter schools could be opened with help from the grant, the OPSRC said in its initial application.
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVoss said the new grants will give students access to more options for their education.
“What started as a handful of schools in Minnesota has blossomed into nearly 7,000 charter schools across the country,” DeVoss said in a statement Thursday. “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.”
Oklahoma is home to nearly 30 charter schools, most of which are in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
Charter schools receive state funds for each student, but low levels of state education funding have challenged some prospective charters that
lack enough money to open or expand, Bushey said.
“It’s especially hard to fund a facility for a new charter school in Oklahoma,” Bushey said. “A lot of folks would love to open a school or create a second one, but getting a facility is a huge hurdle.”
Bushey said the OPSRC will work with the state Department of Education throughout the funding implementation process.
Charter schools are
given an increased amount of autonomy when it comes to hiring, schedules and other aspects of school management. They are still held to state academic standards and can be closed if performance ranks among the lowest in the state.
Once confined to Oklahoma City and Tulsa, charter schools were allowed by the state Legislature in 2015 to open anywhere in Oklahoma. Over the past two years, three charters have opened or been given permission to open in communities outside of Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
Bushey said the legislative change and the expanded list of entities allowed to authorize charter schools helped Oklahoma win the grant.
About 10,000 students attend a “brick-andmortar” charter school in Oklahoma, with another 10,000 attending a virtual charter school.