The grant landscape is ever-changing, including charter school grant opportunities. An FY18 Omnibus spending bill was recently passed by the current administration. Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, intends to funnel more than $1 billion toward private school vouchers and other school choice plans with an emphasis on charter schools. On March 23, 2018, Congress authorized $400 million in funding for charter schools; that is an increase of $58 million from last year. Keep an eye on the Department of Education funding opportunity forecast.
Charter schools should consider potential partners to increase their chance of funding from the DOE and private foundations. Potential partners include nonprofit and for-profit organizations, county/city governments, colleges, police and fire departments, military bases, hospitals, and local businesses.
4 DOE Charter School Grant Opportunities
The Department of Education Office of Innovation & Improvement Charter Schools Program (CSP) is the gatekeeper to “create promising new public charter schools, to replicate high-quality public charter schools and to disseminate information about effective practices within charter schools.” Additionally, the Charter Schools Program assists charter schools in locating school facilities, rewards high-quality charter schools and advances national programs that support charter schools.