Three states -- Arkansas, Florida and Minnesota -- and 10 school districts or partnerships in California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, New Hampshire, New York and Oregon, will benefit from $23.8 million in grants under a new program to help school districts and states establish or expand public school choice programs, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced today.

The grants come under the new Voluntary Public School Choice Program authorized by the landmark education reform law, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB).

The competitive program supports five-year projects that offer the widest variety of choices to students in participating schools, including options that allow students to transfer from low-performing schools to higher performing schools. Under NCLB, students in under-performing Title I schools must be given the option to transfer to a higher performing school in their school district. This new program offers additional options for those children and for others.

"As we work to improve all of our public schools, we must give children who are trapped in low-performing schools an opportunity for a brighter future," Secretary Paige said. "These innovative public school choice programs will demonstrate that greater parental options -- and greater competition -- will help all schools to improve and succeed."

Grantees develop the program with parental and community involvement, in concert with those who will carry out the program, including teachers, administrators and other staff.

To ensure the widest possible reach and participation, the funds can be put to use to help notify parents about the existence of the choice program, what the program offers and the program's availability. In addition, the grants can be used for:

• One year to plan and design the program;

• Tuition transfer payments to the higher-demand schools to which students transfer;

• Capacity-enhancing activities that enable higher-demand schools to accommodate transfer requests; and

• Other reasonable expenses necessary to carry out the program.

A portion of grant funds must be used to provide transportation services (or the costs of transportation to and from public elementary, secondary or charter schools) for students selected to participate in the program.

Students must be selected by lottery if more students apply for admission than can be accommodated.

Those eligible to be grantees are: state education agencies (SEAs); school district or local education agencies (LEAs); or partnerships of SEAs or LEAs with public, for-profit, or non-profit organizations.

Click this link for a list of recipients.

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