Horne announces $34.8 million for charter schools serving educationally disadvantaged students

47 schools to benefit

PHOENIX – State schools chief Tom Horne has announced that Arizona has received a $34.8 million federal grant to establish high-quality charter schools to serve educationally disadvantaged students throughout the state.

Horne said, “I am extremely pleased that we have received this federal grant that will create 24 new high-quality charter schools and help another 23 existing schools with models and practices that result in academic growth. I want to commend the department staff who competed for this funding. Their work has resulted in the state receiving the largest recipient of this grant, per capita, in the country.”

He added, “Arizona is the leader in the country on school choice and charters are a major component of that. These dollars will serve a vital purpose in making sure that an estimated 10,000 students in traditionally underserved areas will have a chance to select a high-quality charter school. Every student in every part of our state, urban or rural, rich or poor, deserves this opportunity and I am very pleased to be a part of this effort.”

The department is already working on the project, which aims to increase the number of high-quality charter schools focusing on educationally disadvantaged students. Such students are identified as those who are economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities, English Language Learners and other demographic groups.

The grant also seeks to close achievement gaps in academic scores, provide technical assistance to educators to improve teaching and learning and encourage dual or concurrent enrollment in college level courses. The expectation is that students will experience at least one year of academic growth on state tests for math, reading and language arts with a long-term measurement of cumulative three-year growth.

Funding continues through September 2029.