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Stimulus Funds Boost D.C. Charter Schools

November 9, 2009
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By Patrick Madden

Nearly a quarter of the federal stimulus funds marked for the district's public school system is going to charter schools.

Forty-Five different charter schools were allocated money. The grants total more than $12 million. By contrast, the district's traditional public school system is set to receive almost $40 million in stimulus money.

D.C. Prep, a large charter school with three campuses in the district, is receiving almost $400,000. According to Ibby Jeppson of D.C. Prep, the infusion of cash will go to one-time expenditures such as new computers, updated software and LCD projectors.

"I don't want to say wish list kind of things," says Jeppson. "But we are using the money for things that we have wanted for a very long time but we would not normally be spending our money on."

More than a third of the district's students attend charter schools.

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