Idaho receives federal charter school grant

BOISE – Idaho is one of five states getting federal government dollars to further develop charter schools as an alternative to the traditional public school system.

The state Department of Education asked for $6.1 million from the U.S. Department of Education to spend during a three-year period beginning in 2009 to promote the growth and quality of proposed charter schools. In Idaho, 32 of these schools have been established by teachers, parents and community members since the state law allowing them was passed in 1998.

Since then, the approval process has toughened, slowing the growth of these schools, said Shirley Rau, the state’s school choice coordinator. More than 10,000 students attend charter schools in Idaho, according to the state Department of Education, and another 7,000 are on waiting lists.

“In the last couple years we haven’t seen as many charter schools,” said Rau, who wrote the federal grant proposal. “The approval process is taking more time from beginning to end.”

Charter school approval can take up to three years, compared to the two years it took the state to approve one of the first in Boise.

Idaho was notified Thursday about the federal grants, which will also go to Oregon, New York, Utah and Florida.

Rau said she didn’t know if Idaho was awarded its full request. Calls to the U.S. Department of Education by the Associated Press were not immediately returned.

Along with promoting higher-quality charter school proposals, the grant will allow the state to study successful charter schools and determine if they are using teaching methods that can be replicated in public schools, Rau said.

The state received another $7 million federal charter school grant in 2006 for three years to further the development of charter schools. The grant announced Thursday would renew the program supported by the previous federal dollars.

State law caps the number of startup charter schools to six per year. About half of the 32 Idaho charter schools were authorized by local school districts, the other 16 schools authorized by the Idaho Public Charter School Commission.

The seven-member commission was created in 2004 to provide charter school oversight, also allowing local school districts to relinquish responsibility and authority over the schools.

“It’s just one more unfamiliar area, that often, they don’t want to deal with,” Baysinger said.