Some Race to the Top Funds Go to Charter Schools

Governor Bill Haslam is committing ten million dollars of the state’s portion of Race to the Top funds to rapidly expand charter schools.

The money will be used to help cover startup costs for forty new charter schools, which are publicly funded, but privately run not for profits. Most of the schools will be in Nashville and Memphis. Haslam announced another twenty million dollars will come from private state donors and non-profits.

Haslam says he’s so certain charter schools will improve education statewide that he wants more—now, and says the investment will remove initial financial hurdles.

“If you talked with charter school operators, they would say funding is obviously a key issue for them all the time. Adding two or three schools a year is not going to get us where we need to be to change the trajectory of education.”

The announcement makes it clear why Haslam is pushing to remove the state’s cap on charter schools—currently set at ninety.

The Governor insists charter schools will be held accountable. Kevin Huffman, his next Commissioner of Education, says charter schools are actually held to a higher standard, since they can be shut down if they fail to show academic improvement two years in a row. So far, that’s only happened once in the state.