Federal grant will help Carmen charter schools expand

Milwaukee's Carmen Schools of Science and Technology is one of 15 charter-school management organizations nationwide to win federal funds for expansion efforts, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Education.

Carmen will receive $1.4 million this year and up to $2.35 million over the next four years to educate more students, according to the release. Carmen currently runs its flagship high school at 1712 S. 32nd St., a combined middle/high school at 5496 N. 72nd St. and a new high school that started with a freshman class this year at 2500 W. Oklahoma Ave., inside Pulaski High School.

Patricia Hoben, Carmen's head of schools, said about a third of the new award will help with the start-up costs for the latest campus, Carmen Southeast. The other two-thirds will help fund the launch of two future schools Hoben plans to open in the next few years. Carmen schools are public schools that operate through an agreement, or charter, with the Milwaukee School Board, but they do not employ district staff.

The $67 million in federal grants for charter school networks to replicate and expand were directed at nonprofit companies with a record of helping low-income children make faster-than-average improvement in reading and math. Carmen was the only charter network in the Midwest to win an award; most of the other networks are based on the East or West coasts.

Wisconsin did not win a portion of another $177 million in federal charter-school grants for states to make their own allocations to charter schools. Only eight states won those awards. The Department of Public Instruction used to receive federal money to award start-up grants to charter school applicants, but that that block grant ended a few years ago.