Formerly Gates-Funded Education Nonprofit to Shut Down

Financial problems are forcing the closure of NC New Schools/Breakthrough Learning, a champion of specialty and early-college high schools, the nonprofit announced Thursday.

The organization had expanded rapidly, said Jeffrey Corbett, president of its board of directors, and the expansion outpaced its funding.

"We ran into cash-flow problems that were directly related to growth and the speed of growth," Corbett said. "It was very, very unfortunate."

The North Carolina New Schools Project started 13 years ago with a five-year, $11 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to restructure secondary education by creating smaller high schools.