By Jennifer Mrozowski
Enquirer staff writer

Ohio will receive a $16.5 million federal grant to help create more charter schools for students who are at risk of failing or dropping out of school.

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced the award Wednesday as part of the No Child Left Behind Act's Charter Schools program.

The program helps states plan, design, operate and distribute information about charter schools, which are publicly funded schools operated by parents, non-profit organizations, for-profit companies and other groups.

Ohio, which was one of 10 states to receive the grant, has about 180 charter schools and expects about 20 more to open this school year, said J.C. Benton, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education. There are about 20 charter schools in the Cincinnati area.

Individual schools must apply for a share of the $16.5 million, which is the amount the federal government will hand out for the first year of the three-year grant.

"Ohio's goal is to close the achievement gap between student groups, and we will use these funds to work toward that mission," Benton said. "Community schools in Ohio continue to provide innovative options for parents and children."

Some advocates of traditional public schools worry that the grant money will mean more competition for students with little oversight for new charter schools.

More than 5,500 students residing in the Cincinnati Public School District attend charter schools. The state gives local school districts money to disburse to charter schools, but not enough to fully fund them, district Treasurer Michael Geoghegan said.

For fiscal year 2004, the district disbursed nearly $34 million to charter schools, but just $13.3 million of that came from the state, he said. The $20.7 million balance came from local property tax revenues, he said.

"I have an extremely deep concern about allocating additional revenue to charter schools when $34 million is already siphoned away from Cincinnati Public School students to charter school students," said Sue Taylor, president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers.

"There are a very few select charter schools that are not in academic emergency," Taylor said, referring to the lowest state ranking for academic achievement. "Where's the accountability? Here's another example of millions of dollars going without any accountability in place."

Ten states will share more than $71.7 million in grants under the program, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Other states are California, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri and Texas.

The first public charter school in the nation opened in 1992; Ohio's first charter schools opened in 1998. Today, nearly 3,000 charter schools serve almost 750,000 students in 37 states and Washington, D.C.

E-mail jmrozowski@enquirer.com