Officials from KIPP, which stands for Knowledge Is Power Program, say the award is the largest the school has received to date. It will allow the free, open-enrollment public charter middle school for underserved students to expand from two schools in Helena to 12 schools across the Delta region by 2019. When the expansion is complete, KIPP Delta’s charter schools will send more than 240 graduates a year to four-year colleges and universities, nearly double the current number of college bound low-income students in the Delta, the school said in a news release.

The Charter School Growth Fund will provide the school with money for infrastructure and operating needs during expansion. When the growth plan is complete, KIPP Delta Public Schools will become a regional cluster of 12 charter schools serving more than 3,600 students. The KIPP Delta cluster will include Helena-West Helena along with three communities that currently do not have a KIPP school.

The three new expansion areas will be chosen through a competitive application process that includes factors such as community support, parent demand and availability of educational alternatives, officials said. The expansion area is targeted for the Arkansas Delta.

“The Charter School Growth Fund selected KIPP Delta for this investment due to its demonstrated track record of success and strong expansion plan,” John Lock, CSGF president and CEO, said in a news release. “KIPP Delta has a relentless focus on helping all students reach high standards and its vision for growth will change the future for thousands of children in the region.”

This month, the school was one of three in Arkansas to be named a 2008 Blue Ribbon School by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.

Founded by Scott Shirey, the school opened in 2002 with just fifth-graders and now serves 365 students in grades five through 11.

KIPP Delta is part of the network of 66 KIPP public charter schools across the country, which was originally started by Teach For America alumni Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin. Nationwide, more than 90 percent of KIPP students are of color, and 80 percent are low-income.

“With this generous CSGF investment, KIPP has the potential to double the number of low-income college graduates emerging from the Delta each year, which would be exciting for the future of the area,” Shirey said.

In 2007, KIPP added a high school in Helena when Luke VanDeWalle opened KIPP Delta Collegiate. It will launch a KIPP elementary school in fall 2009 after Amanda Johnson completes her leadership training under the Fisher Fellowship. To prepare for regional expansion, Shirey has transitioned from school director of KIPP Delta College Prep middle school to executive director of the KIPP Delta region. Jemar Tisby is now the school director of the middle school.

“The CSGF investment represents a tremendous opportunity for KIPP Delta Public Schools to replicate the success of the first two schools through a thoughtful growth process,” said Chaulk Mitchell, chairperson of KIPP Delta’s board of directors.

KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) Delta College Preparatory School, a free, open enrollment public charter middle school in Helena for underserved students, has been awarded a $2.6 million grant by the Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF).

The number of payday lenders operating in Arkansas has dropped by about 86 percent since the state’s top attorney threatened legal action over their high-interest loans, a new study says.

Arkansans Against Abusive Payday Lending, an advocacy group opposed to payday lending released a survey Thursday that says the number of payday lenders operating in the state has dropped from 237 in March to just 33.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel in March sent a cease-and-desist letter to payday outlets that accused the firms of charging high interest rates that violate the state’s constitution. McDaniel’s letter demanded that the firms stop issuing high-interest loans and forgive any outstanding debts.

Advance America, the largest payday loan provider in Arkansas, announced last month that it would close all its outlets in the state because of the lawsuit threat.

Heads of the advocacy group cited the steep drop as evidence of a “meltdown” of the payday lending industry, which they say preys on consumers by charging triple-digit interest on some loans. McDaniel’s letter to the payday lenders accused the firms of violating the state constitution’s 17 percent cap on interest.

“Payday lenders have finally recognized the writing on the wall - that charging triple-digit interest rates to Arkansas consumers is no longer business as usual in our state,” said Michael Rowett, chairman of Arkansans Against Abusive Payday Lending.

The executive director of the Arkansas State Board of Collection Agencies has given payday lenders in the state until Oct. 15 to comply with the Check Cashers Act, which regulates payday lending practices. Arkansans Against Abusive Payday Lending Practices said the lenders targeted by a Sept. 12 letter included 55 that initially defied McDaniel’s cease-and-desist letter.

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Oct. 30 will hear arguments in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 1999 Check Cashers Act, a law that advocates say payday lenders have tried to use as a shield in charging high-interest rates.

HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark.—The Delta Bridge Project has awarded a $161,502, two-year grant to enhance the Teach for Arkansas program and address the shortage of highly qualified kindergarten through sixth grade teachers in Phillips County, Delta Bridge Project Steering Committee Chairman Elijah Mondy announced today.

In Phillips County, local school superintendents point to a lack of certified teachers as a primary cause of low student achievement, forcing local administrators to fill many teaching positions with long-term substitutes or not fully qualified teachers. In 2006, 80 percent of the math and science teachers in Phillips County public schools were not fully qualified.

The enhanced Teach for Arkansas program will provide scholarships to a group of 12 nontraditional students for the final two years of the Early Childhood Bachelor’s of Science in Education degree, which will be offered at Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas (PCCUA) through the University of Arkansas at Monticello. In return for receiving the scholarship and degree, students will commit to teach in Phillips County for at least two years upon graduation.

In addition to funding tuition and fees for the group of 12 students, grant funds will be used to fund tuition for the Grade 5/6 Endorsement for 10 additional candidates. This additional certification allows teachers with Early Childhood degrees to also teach fifth and sixth grades—an area of acute need in Phillips County.

First year funding under the grant will be $82,758 and year two funding will be $78,744. The project’s total two-year cost, including in-kind contributions from PCCUA and UA-Monticello, is estimated at $253,522.

PCCUA successfully managed the first implementation of Teach for Arkansas, which was a partnership among PCCUA, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and Phillips County public schools to offer bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Childhood Education. PCCUA began a partnership in 2003 with UA-Monticello to continue offering the Early Childhood bachelor’s degree. The program is still in place and has a 70 percent placement rate of teachers in local school districts; however, the lack of tuition assistance among other factors has limited enrollment in Teach for Arkansas in recent years.

“Teach for Arkansas has a demonstrated record of success in Phillips County,” Mondy said. “The funds provided by this grant will help take the program to the next level and give prospective teachers the financial and other assistance they need to get their degrees and start making a difference in the lives of students in our county’s public schools.”

“The Teach for Arkansas program is a proactive initiative that will provide incentives to local traditional and non-traditional students to teach in Phillips County,” said Rudolph Howard, Superintendent of the Helena-West Helena School District. “Local residents have ties to the community and are more likely to remain in the area than teachers recruited from outside the region.”

“We are encouraged by the efforts of the Delta Bridge Project to help address the teacher shortage need in our area,” said Lee Vent, Superintendent of the Barton-Lexa School District. “While recruiting teachers from outside the area will bring in new ideas, reality shows that we must try to grow our own, especially in the critical areas, such as mathematics, science, special education, and foreign language.”

The Delta Bridge Project is a comprehensive community development initiative in Phillips County. The goals of the Delta Bridge Project are outlined in the Phillips County Strategic Community Plan, which was developed by more than 300 Phillips County residents during an 18-month strategic planning process.

The Strategic Community Plan is a blueprint for community development with 46 strategic goals and nearly 200 action steps—workable plans of action that provide organized community engagement in a comprehensive process involving each of the five fundamental pillars of community life: economic development; housing; education; leadership development; and health care.

The Strategic Community Plan specifically names teacher training as a goal under the Delta Bridge Project, and the grant announced today will help meet Strategic Goal Number Six, Action Step D.

The Delta Bridge Project has achieved unprecedented success bringing projects to reality and leveraging a total $59 million in investments to Phillips County since the first edition of the Strategic Community Plan was released in August 2005.

Contact: Dominik Mjartan (501) 372-4201 ext. 27 dmjartan@southernfp.org

The Delta Bridge Project is spearheaded by Southern Financial Partners, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit lender and community development organization founded in 1986. Southern Good Faith Fund, Southern Financial Partners, and Southern Community Development Corporation are affiliates of Southern Bancorp, a $575 million rural development bank holding company with banking operations in Arkansas and Mississippi working to transform rural economies by stimulating investments in people, jobs, businesses, and property.