L.A. charter schools are investment grade to Broad

The $6.5-million grant to the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools from Broad's education foundation, along with $3.5 million raised by Alliance board members, clears the way for the group to open 13 middle and high school campuses by 2010 in impoverished neighborhoods where traditional schools are foundering. The expansion will nearly triple the number of Alliance schools to 20, matching the pace of growth underway by the city's most prominent charter group, Green Dot Public Schools.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, former Mayor Richard Riordan, who is Alliance's board chairman, and other Alliance leaders are expected to join Broad at a news conference to announce the gift this morning.

Charters are publicly funded, independently run schools. In exchange for improved student performance, charter operators are free to design their own curriculum and work outside many of the restrictions imposed by school districts. In recent years, the number of charters in the Los Angeles Unified School District has exploded to 103 -- more than any other district in the country. Currently, about 6% of the roughly 708,000 students in the district attend charters, and thousands more will enroll in the next few years.

Broad's gift to Alliance is the latest indication that he views the work of charters, and not the efforts of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa or the district's Board of Education, as the best chance to reform the nation's second-largest school system.

"Certainly the brightest hope for students in Los Angeles are high-performing charter school organizations," Broad said in prepared remarks.

"We need to change," he added in an interview. "We're looking for the superior performance of charter schools to create the pressure for change."

A $10-million contribution to Green Dot last year and the gift to Alliance bring to $56 million the amount given by Broad to support charters in several U.S. cities -- with $36 million going to Los Angeles charter groups.

A staunch supporter of the idea of complete mayoral control of school districts, Broad has made no secret of his disappointment over Villaraigosa's ill-fated decision to seek only partial control of L.A. Unified through legislation that the courts threw out as unconstitutional.