Education Dept. Casts Wide ‘Outreach’ Net

When film producer Zach Richter was looking for a way to publicize his documentary about a flourishing Connecticut charter school, he turned to Washington.

Mr. Richter passed along a rough cut of the movie to a contact at the U.S. Department of Education, where charter school advocates abound. He was encouraged to apply for a grant, and last summer, Mr. Richter’s company received $20,000 from the department, which he used to advertise the air dates of his documentary, “Closing the Achievement Gap,” on the Public Broadcasting Service.

Ads promoting the documentary, which aired in late summer, ran in newspapers such as The Washington Post and T he San Francisco Chronicle ...