Billionaire gives $6.5 million to expand LA charter schools
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 05/24/2007 12:28:21 PM PDT
LOS ANGELES- Billionaire Eli Broad is investing in youngsters again, this time donating $6.5 million to help add 13 charter schools in the Los Angeles area.Broad, who has now given $36 million for area campuses, gave the $6.5 million to the high-performing charter school group Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools.
The grant from Broad's education foundation and the alliance's own $3.5 million will allow the group to open 13 middle and high school campuses by 2010 in poor neighborhoods where traditional public schools are failing.
It will increase the number of alliance schools to 20. There are 103 publicly funded, independently run charter schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
In exchange for improved student performance, charter operators design their own curriculum and work outside many of the restrictions imposed by school districts.
"Certainly the brightest hope for students in Los Angeles are high-performing charter school organizations," Broad said in a statement.
Copyright 2007 Monterey County Herald