Financing and Facilities for Charter Schools

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Financing and Facilities for Charter Schools
NGA Center/CSC Charter Schools Institute September
27-28, 2007
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About The National Resource Center

• Goals build awareness, understanding,
  resources, and capacity for stronger and more
  sustainable charter schools
• Activities develop and disseminate information,
  tools, and technical assistance for effective
  finance and governance of charter schools
• Audiences state policymakers, charter
  authorizers, charter operators
• Products website, resource clearinghouse,
  promising practice profiles, policy guides and
  strategy briefs, federal funding catalog,
  technical assistance
• Partners The Finance Project, USC Center on
  Educational Governance, and WestEd ED funding

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Key Ingredients for Sustainability

• Vision
• Results orientation
• Strategic financing orientation
• Adaptability to changing conditions
• Broad base of community support
• Key champions
• Strong internal systems
• Sustainability plan

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1. Vision

• Know what you want to sustain
• Know how your initiative fits within the larger
  community
• Know what you mean by sustainability
• Scope of activities
• Scale of operation
• Timeline

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2. Results Orientation

• Adopt a results framework
• Be clear about the results you want to achieve
  for children and youth as well as the systems
  that serve them
• Use indicators and performance measures to track
  progress and improve your work

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3. Strategic Financing Orientation

• What are the expected fiscal needs?
• Make the best use of existing resources (fiscal
  and in-kind)
• Maximize available sources of revenue
• Create greater flexibility in categorical funding
• Create public-private partnerships
• Explore new state and local revenue sources

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4. Adaptability to Changing Conditions

• Monitor announced opportunities for
• funding
• Consider new ways to frame your work to interest
  different funders
• Identify opportunities to improve policy climate
• Participate in collaborative advocacy to
  encourage change
• Work to improve ability to participate in these
  efforts

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5. Broad Base of Community Support

• Develop a plan to create a desired identity
• Nurture a community presence and support
• Encourage involvement of clients/recipients of
  services
• Support public education and engagement
• Build partnerships that foster collaboration
  rather than competition

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6. Key Champions

• Identify key decision makers and opinion leaders
• Develop an effective outreach plan
• Cultivate a broad base of champions
• Elected leaders
• Business leaders
• Peers
• Clients (youth, parents, others)
• Community leaders
• Philanthropists

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7.Strong Internal Systems

• Know and involve the people you need to carry out
  your mission staff, board(s), volunteers, etc.
• Develop strong fiscal management, accounting,
  information, and personnel systems
• Use those systems to review strategies, make
  changes as needed

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8. Sustainability Plan

• Develop a comprehensive plan that takes account
  of short- and long-term needs
• Identify challenges and/or obstacles
• Identify strategies to garner needed resources
  and overcome challenges
• Identify and communicate with key partners

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Potential Financing Strategies

• Making Better Use of Existing Resources
• Maximizing Federal, State Local Funds
• Creating More Flexibility Among Funding Sources
• Building Public-Private Partnerships
• Creating New Revenue Streams

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A. Making Better Use of Existing Resources

• Approaches
• Creating efficiencies
• Streamlined administrative and management
  processes
• Examples state training or intermediaries,
  refund unused administrative fees

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B. Maximizing Federal and State Revenue

• Approaches
• Apply for new public funds
• Leverage existing expenditures to draw down new
  funds
• Partner with others to obtain funds
• Examples federal facilities programs
  work-study funds

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C. Creating More Flexibility

• Approaches
• Coordination
• Pooling
• Examples make payments directly to charter
  schools, state start-up assistance, Mass
  Development

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D. Building Public/Private Partnerships

• Approaches
• Leverage funds
• Build leadership
• Access technical assistance
• Examples Georgia career academies economic
  development partnerships

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E. Generating New State and Local Revenue

• Approaches
• New taxes, levies, fees
• Legislative earmarks/line items
• Local matching funds
• Examples lease aid, local property tax
  replacements

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Contact Us

• Carol Cohen Priscilla Wohlstetter
• ccohen_at_financeproject.org wohlstet_at_usc.edu
• National Resource Center on Charter School
  Finance and Governance
• 1401 New York Ave, NW Suite 800
• Washington, DC 20005
• www.CharterResource.org