The New York City department of education will provide money to help charter schools construct buildings, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein has announced.
Working with the city’s School Construction Authority, the department will provide matching money from a fund of $250 million to charter school organizations that are supported by private philanthropy and meet certain other criteria. The groups that receive the aid will lease the schools that are built under the program.
Fifteen new charter schools are opening in the city this fall, Mr. Klein said, bringing the number of such schools in the city to 47, serving some 12,000 students.
The district chief also called on state lawmakers to lift the cap of 100 charter schools permitted to open in the state. The city education department already has applications for 19 more charter schools that want to open in 2006, he said.
