Arts and education philanthropist Eli Broad today will announce his largest investment to date in Los Angeles charter schools, $23.3 million to jump-start at least 17 new campuses run by two major charter-school organizations.
Broad's gift is believed to be the largest by any private donor to local charter schools and underscores his goal of creating effective schools outside the direct jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
L.A. Unified already has 128 charter schools, more than any school system in the nation, enrolling about 7% of the district's 700,000 students.
KIPP schools, which will receive $12 million, are noted nationally for their regimented, character-building approach and extra-long school days and school years. The other charter group is Aspire Public Schools, which will receive $5 million; it requires every graduate to earn college course credits and $3,000 from a paid internship.
Charters are free, independently run, publicly funded schools that are not bound by either the state Education Code or many school district dictates.
Broad, 74, said Wednesday that creating more charters became an essential fallback when L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa retreated from pursuing outright control of the nation's second-largest school system.
"In other cities, those with mayoral control -- Chicago, New York City, Boston -- things are happening from the top down," Broad said in an interview. "And they've made great progress in all those cities. Here, we've got a different situation. If we want to see improvement here, charters are a route to get there. We think doing things from the bottom up, with charters, will help all public schoolchildren."
Broad's history with L.A. Unified spans several reform eras over the last decade. His support of local charter-school organizations has now grown to $56 million, reaching an estimated 25,000 students, arguably far surpassing the number affected by Villaraigosa's higher-profile effort to oversee reforms at six schools through a community partnership.
The gift also builds on research suggesting that charter schools are especially effective in raising test scores at urban middle schools, a sore spot for L.A. Unified.
Broad's donation, hailed in many quarters, was not greeted with enthusiasm by the leader of the teachers union. Most KIPP schools are non-union, as are all Aspire schools.
