The U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced a grant of $253 million was going to The Expanding Opportunity through Quality Charter Schools Program.
“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 county. 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.”
Roughly $15 million of the grant money will be coming right here to Mississippi. 90 percent of that funding will be given to new charter schools to help with start up costs. The remaining 10 percent will be used to help the authorize board with the application process.
Mississippi currently has five authorized charter schools, however only three are operating, they are all located in Jackson. One is scheduled to open in Clarksdale soon.
“The main drive for this funding is to help schools that are trying to start up,” said Elyse Marcellino. “I think this is a great opportunity for the charter school community to grow in Mississippi.”
Those who apply must come with private funding in hand to compete for federal grants because there is little funding right now. This grant will allow for additional funding to those applicants.
“This will provide more choices for more families and that’s a really exciting thing,” said Marcellino.
