Idaho’s Communities of Excellence consortium awarded two public charter schools $1.6 million in grant funding from the Federal Charter School Program.

A panel of third-party reviewers evaluated applications and awarded grants of $800,000 each to Anser Charter School of Garden City and Idaho Arts Charter School of Nampa.

Idaho’s Communities of Excellence CSP grant is a competitive public charter school grant program funded under the Congressional Every Students Succeeds Act, which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 (ESEA). The Communities of Excellence consortium consists of Bluum, the Idaho Public Charter School Commission, the Idaho State Board of Education, the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation and Building Hope.

The grant awards are aimed at increasing the number of public charter school options for families throughout Idaho.

Anser  is one of Idaho’s first charter schools, and has been serving students with their expeditionary learning model for 20 years. The CSP grant will help Anser serve more students at all grade levels. Anser’s student population will grow from 373 to 675 over four years.

In Nampa, Idaho Arts Charter, founded 15 years ago by parents, plans to expand ninth through 12th grades by 60 students. Idaho Arts Charter has maintained a robust waitlist.

Since 2018, Bluum, a non-profit charter support service, has awarded $11.98 million in awards to 13 charter schools to create 5,832 new public school seats across the state of Idaho.

About the Federal CSP Grant

Idaho received $22 million in funding over five years. At least 90 percent of these dollars will flow to public charters for school start-up, school replication and school expansion. At least seven percent must be utilized for state-level technical assistance activities and program evaluation/research. About 3 percent is for Bluum administration.

Note: Idaho Education News and Bluum are funded on grants from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation.