After a quiet start, a Race-To-The-Top-fueled effort to draw proven charter schools to Florida’s neediest communities is picking up steam.

The $30 million Florida Charter School Growth Fund, begun in 2011, has now doled out grants to seven schools for a total of $2.15 million. It also remains in the hunt for luring a nationally known network to the Sunshine State, recently awarding $100,000 to Rocketship Education to help it search for a new school in South Florida.

Finding the right operators ready and able to set up shop in targeted areas takes time, said Darryl Cobb, a partner with the Colorado-based Charter School Growth Fund who leads the group’s Florida effort.

“It’s not as easy as waving a magic wand,’’ he said.

State education officials announced the Florida Charter School Growth Fund in late 2011. Florida kicked in $20 million from its Race To The Top award and the Charter School Growth Fund pledged another $10 million in private donations. (Its fund supporters include major education foundations like the Walton Family and Bill & Melinda Gates foundations.) The mission: Give grants to the best charter networks in the nation ready to open or expand schools in Florida’s poorest communities.

But organizers soon discovered many of those networks weren’t quite ready to expand to Florida, in part because of concerns about funding and authorizers. Strategy shifted to home-grown operators.

Youth Co-Op Preparatory Charter School, an A-rated K-8 school in Hialeah, was the first recipient. In November 2011, it got a $73,000 grant that went toward adding a high school. (Youth Co-Op received another grant for $250,000 in 2012).  Since then, the fund has awarded grants to six more charter schools, including five from Florida.

More schools are on the way. The 5-year goal is to open 30 new high-performing charter schools that serve about 15,000 students a year in communities with persistently low achieving schools.

“Our hope is these operators will begin to transform the opportunities for students and families in these high-needs communities,’’ Cobb said. “We have to provide opportunities for them to succeed.’’

The process, though, hasn’t been without some tension, with some established charter networks in Florida complaining they have been left out.

“We’ve got amazing schools, but many of the operators don’t want to expand” to specific neighborhoods in need, said Adam Miller, director of Florida’s school choice office. “They’re perfectly content doing the amazing work their doing’’ and staying put.

The fund is open to any qualified operators willing to start or expand a school in those areas, Cobb said.

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A “B” for teacher quality policies. That’s Florida’s grade, according to the National Center for Teacher Quality. That’s higher than any other state, notes the Gradebook.

Bang for the buck. Florida students made some of the biggest gains in the nation on NAEP despite some of the smallest increases in ed funding, notes researcher Matthew Ladner at Jay P. Greene’s Blog.

Lawmakers’ ties to charter schools. WFTV in Orlando takes a look. The Tampa Bay Times did a similar but more detailed story last year.

Charter school facilities funding. The Fort Myers News Press takes a look at a task force’s recommendation to increase property taxes to pay for building construction and maintenance at charter schools. Redefined covers the Florida Charter Schools Conference where this was a topic yesterday.

Report on charter school growth. Miami Herald. StateImpact Florida. redefinED.

Promising charter on its way to Pinellas. With little comment, the Pinellas school board voted 7-0 Tuesday for a charter school application that dovetails with a legal settlement over black student achievement. Lots of history here; I wrote a bit about this earlier this week.

More questions in special needs student’s death. Tampa Bay Times.

(Image from simplystatedbusiness.com)

The two-day Florida Charter School Conference officially opens Thursday with keynote speaker Deborah Kenny, founder and chief executive officer of the successful New York charter schools, Harlem Village Academies.

But a pre-conference schedule the day before offers sessions on starting a charter school and networking for principals, along with a three-hour town hall meeting featuring school leaders and legislators scheduled to talk about the future of charters in Florida.

No confirmations, yet, on the roster for that meeting. But look for discussions about charter school funding, especially calls for more oversight in light of the recent discovery of an Orlando charter school that paid its principal $800,000 last school year before the school shut down.

There might also be discussions on PECO funds – Public Education Capital Outlay dollars dedicated to school construction costs. Last year, lawmakers designated $55 million for charter schools and none for traditional public schools.

The rationale? Traditional schools can levy property taxes to build and maintain schools; charters don’t have that luxury. With 574 charter schools in 44 districts and more anticipated, expect debate about the public dollars in 2013.

Although the conference features a separate breakout session Friday on the Charter School Growth Fund, lawmakers might offer some details during the town hall meeting on how that money is used. The fund is made up of $20 million in Race To The Top dollars and $10 million in private donations. (more…)

Florida Gov. Rick Scott wants a summit to "discuss ways to remove barriers to choice options in low performing areas," according to a draft of his education plans for the next legislative session. Posted on the Gradebook blog this morning, the draft offers a few more details about the governor's proposals than today's story did, but not much. Page 5 deals with school choice, and includes these pieces:

Incentives for educational choice options

Choices in education are critical to ensuring that every student has access to high quality learning opportunities that will prepare them for college and careers. Florida has partnered with the Charter School Growth Fund to develop and support high quality operators that can open new charter schools and establish turnaround options for chronically failing schools in high need areas. To ensure all parents and students have the ability to choose what is right to them, Florida should also remove any enrollment caps on existing charter schools, so that results and capacity can determine enrollment. This flexibility also comes with a responsibility for Florida to work to make sure that all charter schools  participate in the school grading system that has made Florida a leader in educational opportunity. To further the state's investment in choice, Governor Scott will be asking stakeholders to come together for a Choice and Competition Summit to discuss ways to remove barriers to choice options in low performing areas. (more…)