In his continued effort to bring pressures to bear on the Los Angeles public school system, billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad has committed more than $6 million to a high-performing charter school group to help it dramatically expand.The $6.5-million grant to the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools from Broad's education foundation, along with $3.5 million raised by Alliance board members, clears the way for the group to open 13 middle and high school campuses by 2010 in impoverished neighborhoods where traditional schools are foundering. The expansion will nearly triple the number of Alliance schools to 20, matching the pace of growth underway by the city's most prominent charter group, Green Dot Public Schools.
State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, former Mayor Richard Riordan, who is Alliance's board chairman, and other Alliance leaders are expected to join Broad at a news conference to announce the gift this morning.
Charters are publicly funded, independently run schools. In exchange for improved student performance, charter operators are free to design their own curriculum and work outside many of the restrictions imposed by school districts. In recent years, the number of charters in the Los Angeles Unified School District has exploded to 103 — more than any other district in the country. Currently, about 6% of the roughly 708,000 students in the district attend charters, and thousands more will enroll in the next few years.
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