Charter School Effort Gets $65 Million Lift

KIPP is also expanding in cities such as New York, where Levin supervises four schools and plans to add five by 2012, and the District, where KIPP's Susan Schaeffler plans to go from three to six schools by 2009. The $65 million will go only for expansion in Houston.

KIPP principals have the power to hire and fire staff and choose curriculum and disciplinary methods in consultation with teachers as long as students show significant achievement gains. They train at Stanford University and through internships, a process Hurwitz said convinced philanthropists that the new schools would also succeed.

Although KIPP receives tax dollars for each student it enrolls, private money is often needed to acquire facilities and hire staff at the outset. KIPP officials said they need on average between $1,000 and $1,500 per student above what they receive from public sources to support special features such as longer school days and week-long field trips to other cities.

"As long as KIPP continues to produce results in the classroom," Linbeck said, "it will continue to grow."

About 85 percent of KIPP students are low-income, and almost all are black or Hispanic. KIPP middle schools take many who are two years behind in fifth grade and bring them up to grade level by the eighth.

But some critics say such impressive statistics stem in part from techniques that shape who attends the schools. Some who cannot adjust to high standards and long days return to regular public schools, these critics say, leaving KIPP with the best.

"KIPP's design is not the solution to the challenges of educating high-need students overall," said Caroline Grannan, a San Francisco public school advocate who focuses on charters. "It would be heartening to see the funders find a way to provide that kind of support for a greater cross section of high-need students."

Nelson Smith, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said he thought the most important aspect of the announcement was that so much of the money was raised from Houston area sources. "In the final analysis," he said, "charter schools will be sustained by state and local efforts that include private as well as public funding."