Fattah Announces Major Grants for Philadelphia Education Including $21 million for Children's Literacy, $7 million for Mastery Charter

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) today announced major grants totaling in the millions of dollars for educational institutions and programs in Philadelphia that he has championed – including the Children's Literacy Initiative and Mastery Charter Schools.

"This is a great day for education in Philadelphia," Fattah said. "These grants will fund quality and innovative programs from elementary grants through high school, college and adult training. All Philadelphians will be seeing a return in terms of an educated, tax-paying workforce for our city."

The Children's Literacy Initiative, a national program based at 2314 Market Street in Philadelphia and serving schools in Philadelphia, will receive $21,726,293 for a teacher professional development program in high-impact literacy instruction from the Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) at the U.S. Department of Education.

"For more than 20 years I have been an avid supporter of the work of the Children's Literacy Initiative in Philadelphia," Fattah said. "Their effort to ensure that teachers have the required skills to fully engage their students and develop them into distinguished scholars is admirable and should be emulated in every school district in the country."

Mastery Charter, which operates seven schools in Philadelphia, will receive $7,446,284 over the next five years, including $1,074,546 for year one, from the Teacher Incentive Fund. The purpose of the program is to strengthen the education profession by rewarding excellence, attracting teachers and principals to high-need and hard to staff areas, and providing all teachers and principals with the feedback and support they need to succeed.

"This is a game changer for us," said Mastery Charter CEO Scott Gordon. "The grant will allow us to invest in programs that assure that every child has a fantastic teacher. Great teachers translate into quality education. This will allow Mastery to grow and will allow more Philadelphia children to get a great education."

Congressman Fattah said, "Mastery is an excellent model for quality education in an urban environment. This grant will be wisely invested by Mastery and will allow them to grow and impact the lives of more young people across our city neighborhoods."

The $7 million grant will allow the schools to add schools and grow from 4,000 to 10,000 students, Gordon said. It comes in the same week that Oprah Winfrey announced a grant of $1 million to Mastery from her Angel Network.

Congressman Fattah, a senior House Appropriations Committee member and longtime education advocate, also announced these grants for Philadelphia and the 2nd Congressional District:

• $750,000 for Philadelphia College Opportunity Resources for Education (CORE) to administer a citywide "final mile" scholarship program that provides up to $2,000 to eligible high school students from public, parochial, and private schools within Philadelphia to ensure that these students have access to college. Fattah created the program for Philadelphia graduating high school seniors in 2003 and the program has since distributed $27 million in scholarships to 16,000 Philadelphia students.
• $500,000 for Universal Companies, under the Promise Neighborhood Program, announced earlier this week to provide children in the Point Breeze and Grays Ferry communities in South Philadelphia access to effective schools and strong systems of support that will prepare them to attain an excellent education and successfully transition to college and career.
• $185,617 for the University of Pennsylvania for African Language programs.
• $165,000 for the Jewish Employment and Vocational Services, for an Associate in Specialized Business Degree program in court reporting at JEVS' Orleans Technical Institute.
• $100,000 to Chestnut Hill College to establish the Center for Environment and Sustainability, with a certificate program, lectures, workshops, training and a Web site.

Contact Ron Goldwyn at 215-387-6404 or [email protected]

SOURCE Office of Congressman Chaka Fattah