Joseph D. Kenney: Accepting federal money for charter schools was smart

At the governor and Executive Council inaugural meeting in Concord, the council voted to accept and expend funds in the amount of $10.1 million for New Hampshire Charter School Grants from the U.S. Department of Education.  These funds are a part of a five-year grant program in New Hampshire that totals $46 million.

New Hampshire Department of Education applied for and received a Charter School Program grant through the Federal Expanding Opportunity Through Quality Charter Schools Program (CSP) Grants to State Entities.

New Hampshire’s national recognition as a state that supports innovative practices of competency-based, personalized teaching and learning, as well as home to a coherent system of innovative assessment and accountability, makes it a testing ground for new school development, particularly for at-risk students.  Currently, the state is home to 31 public charter schools. Seven of these schools meet the federal definition for high-quality charter school replication.

The CSP program has set reasonable expansion goals of 20 new public charter schools, 7 replications of existing public charter schools, and 5 expansions of high quality charter schools over the five-year grant period. These expansion goals enable the state to target awards to existing charter schools that have demonstrated success and to expand or replicate the work they are doing, in addition to setting a foundation for success for new public charter schools. To assist in these efforts, the CSP program includes two staff positions; a program administrator and a program specialist.

The department has five charter schools approved by the State Board of Education and they may be eligible for startup funding grants of up to $1.5 million each, four of which are open with students enrolled and one of which is planning to open in the fall of 2021. Grant allocations to those schools in FY 2021 are estimated to be $7.5 million.

Additionally, the NH Department of Education currently has 20 chartered public schools that are approved by the State Board of Education that are looking to expand and may be eligible to receive expansion grants of up to $600,000 each. Grant allocations to those schools in FY 2021 are estimated to be $12 million, well over the actual grant amount, which would necessitate a competitive process for selection. Those schools in Executive Council District 1 are as follows: Ledyard Charter Public School, 9-12, Lebanon, Northeast Woodlands Charter Public School, K-8 Conway, Robert Frost Charter Public School Public School, K-7, Conway.

The North Country Charter Academy in Lancaster and Littleton, grades 7-12 would like to replicate a new school in the Lakes Region and may be eligible to receive a replication grant of $1.2 million in FY 2021.

As these charter schools expand and programs are implemented, there are other funds set aside for statewide technical assistance and for administrative services.

In total, the Education Department estimates that the current approved and operating charter school sector in New Hampshire and state set-aside of the grant will utilize $25.7 million of the $46 million grant.

Joseph D. Kenney

Executive Councilor District 1