Three Keys To Increasing Charter School Enrollment (1)

 

Charter school enrollment growth doesn’t happen by accident. It requires strategic planning, effective systems, and consistent execution across multiple touchpoints. Schools that consistently grow their enrollment understand that attracting families is only half the battle—converting interest into actual enrollment requires a comprehensive approach.

Drawing from the success of charter schools achieving 10% annual growth rates while maintaining waiting lists of hundreds of students, here are the three essential keys to sustainable enrollment growth that every charter school leader should implement.

Key #1: Develop a Multi-Faceted Marketing Strategy

Why Diversified Marketing Matters for Charter Schools

Successful charter school enrollment growth starts with a comprehensive marketing approach that reaches families where they are, not where you think they should be. Different communities respond to different marketing channels, and the most successful schools understand that a one-size-fits-all approach limits their potential reach.

Essential Marketing Channels for Charter Schools

Digital Marketing Strategies:

  • Social Media Marketing: Engage families on platforms they use daily, sharing student achievements, classroom highlights, and school culture moments
  • Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Target specific demographics and geographic areas with precise messaging about your school’s unique value proposition
  • Search Engine Optimization: Ensure your school appears when families search for educational options in your area

Traditional Marketing Approaches:

  • Print Advertising: Local newspapers, community magazines, and educational publications still reach important family demographics
  • Radio Advertising: Particularly effective for reaching commuting parents and building brand awareness in your community
  • Community Presence: Participation in local events, farmers markets, and community gatherings where target families spend time
The Strategy Behind Successful Marketing

The key to effective charter school marketing isn’t choosing one channel over another—it’s testing multiple approaches to determine what resonates with your specific community. What works in one geographic area may not work in another, which is why successful schools continuously experiment with different marketing strategies while carefully tracking results.

Data-Driven Marketing Approach:

  • Track which marketing channels generate the most website traffic
  • Monitor conversion rates from different advertising sources
  • Analyze demographic data to understand which messages resonate with different family groups
  • Continuously refine messaging based on actual enrollment data rather than assumptions
Key #2: Create an Effective, Mobile-Optimized Website

Your Website as Your Primary Enrollment Tool

Your school’s website serves as the digital front door for prospective families. In today’s mobile-first world, this digital first impression often determines whether a family will continue exploring your school or move on to other options.

Critical Website Design Principles for Charter Schools

Simplicity Over Complexity: Many school websites suffer from “information vomit”—overwhelming visitors with too much content because every department wants to showcase their programs. However, your website’s primary purpose is to inform potential students and families about your school in a clear, compelling way.

Mobile-First Design Requirements: With 70% of website traffic coming from mobile devices, your site must deliver an excellent experience on smartphones and tablets. This means:

  • Fast loading times on mobile networks
  • Easy-to-read text without zooming
  • Simple navigation that works with finger taps
  • Contact forms that are easy to complete on small screens
  • Click-to-call phone numbers for immediate contact
Essential Website Content for Enrollment Growth

Information Families Actually Need:

  • Clear description of your educational approach and philosophy
  • Academic programs and extracurricular offerings
  • Enrollment process and important deadlines
  • Contact information prominently displayed
  • Success stories and student achievements
  • Faculty qualifications and school leadership

Amazon-Level User Experience: Modern families expect the same level of convenience and ease they experience with major e-commerce sites. This means:

  • Intuitive navigation that gets them to information quickly
  • Search functionality to find specific details
  • Online application processes that work seamlessly
  • Immediate confirmation when they submit information requests
Conversion Optimization for Charter School Websites

Your website should guide visitors toward taking action, whether that’s requesting more information, scheduling a tour, or starting an application. Strategic placement of contact forms, clear calls-to-action, and compelling reasons to engage with your school can significantly increase conversion rates.

Key #3: Implement Responsive Systems and Dedicated Personnel

The Critical Importance of Quick Response Times

Even the most effective marketing and website design won’t drive enrollment growth if you can’t respond quickly to interested families. In today’s competitive educational landscape, families who don’t receive prompt responses will simply move on to other options.

Building an Effective Inquiry Management System

Contact Form Strategy: Implement a strategic contact form that collects essential information while providing immediate value to families. This approach allows you to:

  • Capture family contact information for follow-up
  • Understand their specific interests and needs
  • Provide relevant information packets automatically
  • Begin the relationship-building process immediately

The 24-Hour Response Rule: Successful charter schools make it a priority to respond to all inquiries within one business day. This rapid response time demonstrates professionalism and shows families that your school values their interest.

 
Staffing for Enrollment Success

Dedicated Enrollment Team: Growing charter schools invest in dedicated personnel to manage the enrollment process. Even schools serving thousands of students typically maintain enrollment teams of 6-8 people who handle:

  • Initial inquiry responses and follow-up calls
  • Application support and guidance
  • Document collection and verification
  • Enrollment appointments and paperwork completion
  • Ongoing communication throughout the process

Process Management: Effective enrollment teams manage multiple complex processes simultaneously:

  • Hundreds of weekly inquiries during peak periods
  • Document collection including immunization records
  • Application processing and verification
  • Enrollment appointments and master agreement signing
  • Ongoing family communication and support
Streamlining the Enrollment Process

Timeline Management: The enrollment timeline varies significantly based on timing and family readiness. During peak seasons (July and August), the process typically takes 2-3 weeks from initial inquiry to completed enrollment. However, prepared families during off-peak times can sometimes complete enrollment within a single week.

Removing Enrollment Barriers: The online application process can be complex, requiring numerous documents and forms. Successful schools focus on making this process as painless as possible by:

  • Providing clear instructions and checklists
  • Offering multiple ways to submit required documents
  • Having staff available to answer questions throughout the process
  • Following up proactively to prevent applications from stalling
Measuring and Optimizing Your Enrollment Success

Key Performance Indicators for Charter School Enrollment

Website and Marketing Metrics:

  • Website traffic sources and conversion rates
  • Cost per inquiry from different marketing channels
  • Mobile website performance and user engagement
  • Time from inquiry to application submission

Enrollment Process Metrics:

  • Response time to initial inquiries
  • Conversion rate from inquiry to completed application
  • Average time from application to enrollment
  • Reasons families choose other schools (exit interview data)
Continuous Improvement Strategies

Successful charter schools treat enrollment growth as an ongoing process requiring constant attention and refinement. This means:

  • Regularly surveying enrolled families about their decision-making process
  • Tracking which marketing messages resonate most effectively
  • Continuously optimizing website performance and user experience
  • Training enrollment staff on best practices and communication skills
Building Long-Term Enrollment Success

Creating Sustainable Growth Systems

The schools that achieve consistent 10% annual growth rates while maintaining waiting lists understand that enrollment success requires:

  • Consistent execution across all three key areas
  • Investment in both technology and personnel
  • Ongoing measurement and optimization
  • Commitment to providing exceptional customer service throughout the enrollment process
The Compound Effect of Excellence

When charter schools excel in marketing, website optimization, and responsive enrollment processes, the results compound over time. Satisfied families become advocates who refer other families, creating a sustainable pipeline of interested students that can support consistent growth year after year.

Getting Started: Your Next Steps

If your charter school isn’t achieving the enrollment growth you need, start by evaluating your current performance in these three key areas:

  1. Audit your marketing approach: Are you reaching families through multiple channels and tracking what works?
  2. Assess your website: Does it provide an excellent mobile experience and clear path to enrollment?
  3. Evaluate your response systems: Can you respond to inquiries within 24 hours and guide families through enrollment smoothly?

Improvement in any of these areas will positively impact your enrollment, but the schools that see dramatic growth excel in all three simultaneously.


Ready to take your charter school enrollment to the next level? Our team specializes in helping charter schools implement these proven strategies for sustainable growth. Contact us to learn how we can support your enrollment goals.

charter school operationsCharter Schools Operations: How to Manage for Sustainability

For this episode of our CHARTER EDtalks, Ryan Eldridge, one of Charter School Capital’s Charter School Advisors, had the honor of sitting down with Tom Tafoya, Chief Operations Officer for Visions in Education as he shares his tips for managing sustainable growth and provides key operational strategies for long-term success.
Visions in Education is a tuition-free public charter school that supports personalized learning in public education. They now serve over 6,400 students across a nine-county service area, making us one of the largest and most stable charter schools in the Sacramento Valley region.
To learn the tips and strategies Tom Tafoya so generously shared with us, please watch the video or read the transcript below to get the full story.



Ryan Eldridge: Hello there, and thank you for joining us for this episode of CHARTER EDtalks. I’m Ryan Eldridge, charter school advisor for Charter School Capital. I’m honored to be joined today by Tom Tafoya, Chief Operations Officer for Visions in Education.
And we’re here to discuss managing sustainable charter schools, operational strategies for long term success. So I appreciate you coming today, Tom. Welcome. Why don’t we just kick it off, jump right into it? The first question… So Visions has been around for about 20 years now. So what have been some of the greatest challenges over the years?

Overcoming Initial Challenges

Tom Tafoya: So I’ve been with Visions for 14 years, and over that timeframe, we’ve encountered a lot of ups and downs. You know, when we had initial growth we did not have a lot of administrative systems and people in place to manage the growth. We tripped over ourselves constantly and I think that really hurt us.
We had a period where we had declining enrollment because we just weren’t doing our job well. And so I think over that time, we started to get smarter, and started bringing the right people, and started building the systems for kind of sustained growth.
Starting out with not having some good administrative systems and people in place really was a challenge. At the same time, you have the competitor pressure. So if the competition is coming and you’re not really set up to succeed, you’re not going to succeed. And so I think between the … just having good systems and good structures for the operation, let alone are we providing great services to our students is a really big challenge. And I’m only going to talk about the operational pieces. Because as the operations officer, I’m in charge of business technology, enrollment, ordering materials, all those types of things.
From my perspective, not having good people and systems was a big challenge. And then the competition, and then you have the external environment that’s constantly changing and impacting the things that we have to do to meet our obligations as a charter school.

Maximize Revenues

Tafoya: Those are some of the big challenges that we faced over the years. The big things in trying to maintain a sustainable charter over time is really being focused on two things: maximizing revenues, minimizing expenditures. It sounds so simple.
Under each of those umbrellas, you can go for days on all the different tactics and strategies for each. And so I’ll just kind of cover some of the top two. Number one, maximizing revenue and driving enrollment and/or maintaining your enrollments are the top two.
So I think growing enrollment, but if you have a retention problem you’re going to continually have to keep filling that leaking bucket. And so we’ve done a lot of work to systematize and really improve our enrollment practices from using really advanced marketing, and building enrollment systems to have the workflow— the enrollment process— be very streamlined to continue to grow enrollment. And then also kind of working on ensuring that our retention is good.
And really, the biggest challenge is retention. Do we know why students are staying with us and why they’re leaving? Are we serving them or not? Are we learning from those surveys and making adjustments as we go?
And over time, we’ve done that. We’ve listened to the surveys, kind of paid attention to what the competitors are doing, making adjustments every step of the way so that those families that we get … we want to keep them. And then continue to grow the kids in a really managed way.
We don’t want to just chase growth for sake of growth because that’s generally going to lead to not a good outcome for the kids, because you’re not really serving them well. We’ve tried to approach it as a managed growth approach. We average about 10% growth a year.
Eldridge: Wow.
Tafoya: For us, that’s what we want to do. We’re turning away hundreds of kids a year, but we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves where we’re not providing really great services and systems to have good outcomes for them. And so, really focusing on that piece … that’s that maximizing enrollment piece which results in maximized revenues.
Certainly, you’ve got to pursue all types of revenues whether that be your SELPA arrangement, special ed, summer school ADA programs, Medical reimbursements. Are you fully utilizing all of your teachers because you manage them properly and appropriately?
Those are all tactics we’re constantly looking to turn over every stone to ensure we’ve maximized our revenues. Again, we’re not trying to grow 30, 40% a year. We want to maintain a really good, steady growth. But in that steady growth, maximize our revenue so that we’re not kind of wondering what happened to all the money.

Minimize Expenses

The flip side is minimizing expenses. And so with that is really … I’m cheap. I’m always looking for a deal, and I want to make sure we’re getting the best deal. Whether we’re building technology or buying technology, for all the staff we hire do we have systems and metrics in place to ensure our staff is fully utilized? That’s a lot of the work we do is really … We hire 10 new teachers, we want to make sure they’re full on day one and they stay full throughout the year.
You can only do that if you have really good enrollment processes and practices. As you lose a student, we can immediately replace the student. That’s a way for us to minimize our expenses on our staffing, and we have elaborate systems and processes in place to make sure that we’re able to do that with high efficiency. Which again, allows to really have a lot of money left over. We have an online program that serves about 2,500 kids. Every kid gets a Chromebook. If they’re low income, they get a MiFi unit. And those aren’t cheap. That’s how we’re able to do those types of things is by making sure every stone is turned over and every expense is minimized.
Really kind of paying attention, but this is taxpayer money. It’s not our money.
Eldridge: Right.
Tafoya: It’s taxpayer money. And we’re really cognizant of that, and respecting that, and doing our best with all the resources we have and trying to serve as many kids who want to be served by us. But doing so in a way that’s really good for them and not just for growth’s sake.
Eldridge: Yeah, that’s great. How many total students do you serve?
Tafoya: We serve about 6,300 right now. We have one charter in Northern California with 6,300 students. This past spring, we turned away about 900 kids. We do an independent study program, so we have homeschooling and several online high school programs … one for at-risk kids and one for kind of a college preparatory program.
Eldridge: Yeah. Yeah, that’s a lot of kids to manage. Sounds like you’re doing a great job up there. Appreciate you coming on screen today, and chatting with us, and giving your insight and expertise. That wraps up this episode of CHARTER EDtalks. Again, thank you, Tom. We appreciate it. Hopefully everybody enjoyed the session today. Thank you.

Charter School AuthorizersTips on Building Better Relationships with Charter School Authorizers

For this episode of our CHARTER EDtalks, Ryan Eldridge, one of Charter School Capital’s Charter School Advisors, had the honor of sitting down with Mike Limon, Executive Director at Orange County Educational Arts Academy (OCEAA), to discuss actionable tips for building better relationships with charter school authorizers.
To learn the tips on how to build better relationships with your charter school authorizers, please watch the video or read the transcript below to get the full story.



Building Relationships with Charter School Authorizers

Ryan Eldridge: Hello there and thank you for joining us in this episode of CHARTER EDtalks. I’m Ryan Eldridge, Charter School Advisor for Charter School Capital, and I’m honored to be joined by Mike Limon, Executive Director at Orange County Educational Arts Academy (OCEAA). And we’re going to be discussing building better relationships with charter school authorizers.
Mike Limon: Great.
Eldridge: So, thank you, Mike, for joining us. We appreciate it.
Limon: Thanks for having me.
Eldridge: Why don’t we just jump right into it.
Limon: Sure.

Breaking Down Barriers, Collaborating, Accountability

Eldridge: The first question is, “Can you define what building better relationships with charter authorizers means to you?”
Limon: Sure. So before even I dive into that, I want to give a big thank you to the Santa Ana Unified School District. They’ve been great at getting me up and running because this is year one for me as executive director.
So, I’m definitely excited to dive in, learn, and build relationships. And so, with that, the bigger topic is the students. We’re here to educate all students, whether they’re in a public charter school, a traditional school, a private, a Catholic school, etc., whatever. We’re here to educate them together. And so, with that, the word in my mind that pops up is collaboration. Let’s break down those barriers and truly collaborate together as the authorizer and the public charter school.
We want to work beyond just our traditional responsibilities that board members have. There’re responsibilities that they’re held accountable to, and I have my responsibilities that I’m held accountable to. Let’s not lose sight of how we can go beyond those responsibilities and build a tighter relationship to educate all our students in our district.
A lot of folks have this very transactional process or experience with their charter school manager or their authorizers, or the board themselves—very transactional. I want to break beyond that and truly build a partnership with them to figure out how to elevate our students to the next level.

How to Build Those Relationships

Eldridge: What does effective relationship-building look like?

Providing Feedback

Limon: People traditionally just go in and submit interim budget reviews or attendance reports, just check the box off. For me, again, I want to break down those barriers, get to know who these people are that sit on the board, and also the folks behind the scenes. The assistant superintendents, the charter school manager, or whatever their title is, breaking that down and building processes together, because I know that the school districts are also trying to systematize their processes.
And even, for example, in Santa Ana, they just started using this new tool called Epicenter, and so I think its year one for them, if I’m not mistaken. But I know that they’re also trying to figure out how it works, how to systematize it, how to make it better for both users. I know that it’s a brand new tool, so for them, they want to go in and try to customize things.
If you don’t give them constructive criticism or feedback on how to elevate their processes, we’re not going to get anywhere versus just submitting your traditional transactional paperwork, etc.
One of the things I’ve learned in working with them … and I call them. I email them. I text them when I need something or just education as well, because we’re cross-educating each other.
They don’t know what our challenges are either because they’re not in our shoes every day throughout the year. They come in maybe twice a year, check out the school, that kind of thing. But if we’re not giving them feedback, we can’t help them help us make our jobs easier.
Because at the end of the day, charter school teams are pretty small, and so to be able to have another informal colleague on the other side supporting you and cheering you on, you can’t really get anywhere. Again, it’s a very fast-paced environment as well. If you’re not creating constant touchpoints or conversations, you can’t really elevate processes.

Build relationships at the city, county and state level

Limon: The other thing, too, that came up with this conference—and this was only day one—is the notion … because my authorizer is Santa Ana. We’re in Santa Ana, so for us, it’s easy to just quickly build relationships with them.
But also, at the county level, that’s something that is a best practice. You should be building relationships with them as well if you have a city authorizer. We forget.
We focus all our energies on developing those relationships with the city, but we lose sight that we also should be building relationships at the county level and even at the statewide level as well because sometimes, even in Santa Ana, they may not have answers to some of your questions.
To be able to have someone that you can call at the state level, at the county level, that you already built relationships with … because sometimes you might be down to the wire trying to get some things done, and you definitely need that support to try to answer that question.
Just building processes together to be more effective in the long term. You’ve got to plant the seed to gain the results a year later. If you start now and have those meaningful touchpoints and help them help you, it’s definitely very effective.

If you build it, will they come?

Eldridge: Can you give me a few examples of how you can collaborate with a charter authorizer in the school board?
Limon: I’ll start off with very simple things first, and then I’ll dive into some recent things that have just come up as far as opportunities for me.
You know your traditional site visits; have coffee, get them to come to your events. Constantly invite them out. It’s going to be really hard to get them on your calendar because, especially for Santa Ana, our district is pretty large and there’s constant events happening at their schools. And there’s fundraisers and “munch and learns” and etc. I see all kinds of formats of events.
Just get them to come out to your school, let them get to know who your students are, who your teachers are, who the families are … because there’s all these misconceptions about the people that we serve at our charter schools. And for our school, for example, we’re about 86%, 87% Latino/Hispanic students that we serve. The misconception in the community is that it’s the other way around, very low Hispanic rates that we serve, which is completely wrong.
For us, to get them to come out … and it doesn’t have to be a school board, it could be some other staff, maybe even some other teachers to come out and see who we are so that as they’re telling the story about OCEAA in the community and they have a good understanding [of who we are].
They’ve been in the classrooms. They’ve seen the parents. They’ve engaged with them. That’s definitely something I’m going to be really pushing for the next year.
It’s going to take a lot of work because even just for you guys as service providers, to be able to educate people in your programs and get people to come in and learn about the services you offer, it takes a lot of work. It’s kind of that similar situation, so I’m going to have to work my butt off to try to get them to come into our buildings.
One other thing that, for me, I’m lucky I’m in downtown Santa Ana, we have food, great food, throughout the city that we’re in. Just trying to get them on the calendar to come to break bread with me would also be an easy ask. They’re breaking bread at a very yummy place that’s maybe not so hoity-toity. And that builds that relationship a little further.

Do your homework, get involved, and get connected!

Limon: A lot of them are also very involved with community organizations or non-profits in the Orange County area. For example, the Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the National Latina Business Women Association. There’re these ethnic organizations that these board members of Santa Ana support and maybe even have leadership roles in, which I’ve been doing for the last decade or so. I’m on the board of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce here in Sacramento. And there’s all this synergy happening to elevate Hispanic youth or even leaders already in the community supporting each other, paying it forward.
Doing some homework with regards to where you are in the nation or California on where these board members spend the rest of their time.
Do they support other organizations?
Figure out what interests them and work with them to build that relationship aside from your day-to-day responsibilities, like I was mentioning earlier, get to know them on a personal level and start to build that relationship, because, as we all know, we’ve got those interim budgets, the renewal. There’s all this compliance that we have to do. If you start building those relationships and even planting the seed or even asking, “Okay, so for this year, for the renewal this time around, what are the things that we need to start preparing for?”
Because it’s probably a good time to start preparing for that renewal. You never know with all the laws that come up and those constant changes. To be able to have someone to call on really quickly versus at the last minute, 30 days coming up, you’re probably scrambling, and you don’t really have any relationships that you’ve established, that’s going to be a huge challenge for these folks.
Again, community relationships, building those processes, those collaboration opportunities, get to know who they are.
And then something that just happened recently with me is the school board president just invited me to be a principal for the day at one of their schools, and I feel so honored. So, thank you, Santa Ana. But to get that opportunity to go and be an admin at one of their schools as a charter leader, I think that’s a home run right there.
Eldridge: Absolutely.
Limon: And it goes back to all the work that I’ve been doing over the last few months and trying to build relationships with them, supporting them. Of course, there are only so many hours in the day, and I would love to duplicate myself and get out to more events and support them. But you have to have that balance because you don’t want to burn yourself as well at the end of the day.
It’s been quite the ride so far, and I’m looking to see what the future holds in partnership with you guys. You guys have been great as educators, educating our school on different opportunities and how we can focus on our facilities because that’s a big challenge as well for other organizations out there. I didn’t realize that.
Even for us, for example, we had a short-term challenge with flooding with all these rains. And so, you quickly get a reminder about the importance of facilities. And so, we’ve been chatting just recently about how we can elevate our school with your support.
Eldridge: Well, great. Well, that wraps up this episode of CHARTER EDtalks. Mike, thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate it.
Limon: Thanks for having me.
Eldridge: And hopefully it was beneficial to you viewing out there. Take care.



The Ultimate Guide to Charter School Facility Financing:
In this CHARTER EDtalk, Mike chatted about potential upcoming facilities projects he’s considering. Are you thinking about a new facility for your charter school or enhancing your current one? This guide shares straightforward and actionable advice on facilities planning, financing options, getting approved, choosing a partner, and much more! Download it here.

GET THE RESOURCE

 

Charter SchoolsCharter Schools Are A Better Investment Than Traditional Public Schools

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published here on April 9, 2019 by the New York Post. It was written by Patrick Wolf, a distinguished professor of education policy and holds the endowed chair in school choice at the University of Arkansas and Corey DeAngelis, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute. It examines which type of public school — traditional or public charter — delivered the most ­academically cost-effective education.
We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support charter school growth and the advancement of the charter school movement as a whole. We hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable.


Case closed: Charter schools deliver more education ‘bang’ for the buck

Polls show that most Americans think our public schools deserve more funding. Meanwhile, each year, states and school districts make choices about how to spend the education funds that they have. Doesn’t it make sense for them to invest in schools that work — schools that help students learn the most with the lowest burden on taxpayers?
Several years ago, we began ­researching which type of public school — traditional or public charter — delivered the most ­academically cost-effective education. In a 2018 report, we ­examined eight cities: New York City plus Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, San Antonio and Washington, DC.
While their sizes and demographics vary widely, each city has a substantial concentration of students enrolled in charter schools. In every city, we found that charter schools were more productive — that is, they yielded more learning per education dollar spent than traditional district schools.
Students enrolled in New York City’s charter schools scored roughly 12 points in reading on the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, for ­every $1,000 invested in those schools.
By contrast, students in the city’s traditional public schools produced about 9.5 NAEP reading points per $1,000 invested, generating a cost-effectiveness advantage of 24% for charters in the Big Apple. The results for math were similar: More than 13 NAEP points per $1,000 of funding for charters compared to almost 10.5 points for traditional schools.
We also discovered that Washington, DC, charters were 67% more cost-effective than traditional schools. Indianapolis charters bested their traditional counterparts by 65% on the productivity measure.
This year we revisited the same eight cities to see if the trend had continued. It had. Once again, the charter schools in each city proved more cost-effective. Public charter schools in New York were 25% more cost-effective than the city’s traditional public schools in producing 2017 NAEP reading scores and 26% more cost-effective in generating math scores.
San Antonio charter schools, to take another example, were 29% more cost-effective in math and 30% more cost-effective in reading than traditional schools. Washington charters were 43% more cost-effective in both subjects. The results for each city are detailed in our report, “A Good Investment: The Updated Productivity of Public Charter Schools in Eight U.S. Cities.”
We recognized that NAEP scores represent only a snapshot of academic performance. So we were curious what long-term academic results would reveal.
By calculating the average amount of learning at traditional and charter schools, the economic returns to those learning levels over the ­average lifetime, as well as each type of school’s total per-pupil funding over the course of a K-12 education, we were able to calculate the return on investment, or ROI, delivered by each type of school.
In all eight cities, we found that charters delivered a greater lifetime ROI. For each dollar invested in a student enrolled in traditional schools, that student secures $4.41 in lifetime earnings. The same dollar invested in a student enrolled in charter schools yields $6.37 in lifetime earnings for that student.
Public charter schools’ ROI exceeded that of traditional public schools by an average of 53%. Atlanta charter schools yielded an ROI that was 102% greater than traditional schools. Indianapolis came in second, with charters’ ROI 73% greater than traditional schools, followed by Washington charters at 58% and Boston charters at 53%.
The ROI for learning generated in New York City charters was 29% higher than the ROI in the traditional public schools in the city.
Elected officials and policymakers have a choice about where to invest educational resources and a responsibility to invest wisely. Charter schools are, simply put, a good investment. Our findings are just one more reason why lawmakers in Albany should raise the cap on charters in New York City and give the more than 53,000 Big Apple families on charter waitlists the chance to get the sound education they deserve.


Charter School Capital logoIf you are trying to meet operational expenses, expand, acquire or renovate your school building, add an athletic department, enhance school safety/security, or buy new technology, complete the online application below and we’ll contact you to set up a meeting. Our team works with you to determine funding and facilities options based on your school’s unique needs.


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Florida Legislative Update

Florida Legislative Update: Mid-Session Hope for Schools of Hope

In the past two years, the Florida Legislature passed some of the most sweeping charter school policy since the original charter school legislation was signed in 1996. As Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Richard Corcoran orchestrated the revamping of the formula for calculating and appropriating capital funds to charter schools, expanded timelines for planning and opening new charter schools, created a state-sponsored scholarship for struggling readers in grades 3-5. But the most sweeping change that will play for years to come is Schools of Hope.

Schools of Hope

Schools of Hope were established as a means of closing the opportunity gap and improving student performance. The Schools of Hope legislation provided an expedited approval path to entice national high performing charter schools to become Hope Operators and open charter schools within the attendance zones of Florida’s persistently low-performing traditional public schools.
Since then, two nationally known charter school operators (KIPP and IDEA Public Schools) have received the Hope Operator designation from Florida Department of Education and have announced plans for new schools in Miami and Tampa.

A Plan to Expand

Fast forward to the present. Shortly after his inauguration in January Governor Ron DeSantis named former Speaker Richard Corcoran as Secretary of Florida Department of Education, and he is now on a mission with supporters in the Florida Legislature to expand the Schools of Hope program even further.

Legislative Negotiations

At the beginning of legislative session last month the Florida Senate offered a plan that cut funding for the existing Schools of Hope program ($140 million) as well as reclaiming money from the previous two years and increasing Hope awards available to school district’s efforts at improving those persistently low-performing schools on their own. This idea did not sit well with House members who felt the Schools of Hope was the best solution after years of failed attempts by school districts to improve performance at these low-performing schools.
The House plan cuts Hope awards available to public schools from $2,000 per student to $500 per student and shifts more money into the Schools of Hope program. Negotiations between the two chambers on policy soon began and now the policy is beginning to come together.

Senate Bills

This past week, the Senate amended its school choice bill to more closely resemble the House version and its provisions for Schools of Hope expansion.
Both bills (HB 7095 in the House and SB 7070 in the Senate) would revise the school grade requirements in the definition of “persistently low-performing” that could potentially expand the areas available for Hope Operators to open new schools. It would also provide state funds for lease payments and other costs until the school is fully enrolled.
The House version further amends the definition of “persistently low-performing” to include Florida Opportunity Zones created by the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, signed into law last December. This could add an additional 200 communities available for potential Hope Operators to consider for new school sites.

What it All Means

Both versions of the bill will continue to move closer to one another as the last two weeks of the legislative session come to a close. Regardless of what the specific language that is finally approved, this expansion of the Schools of Hope program will continue to solidify school choice and will only mean more options for closing the opportunity gap in Florida’s K-12 education system.
See our previous Florida Legislative Update here.


Charter School Capital logoSince the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We provide growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!

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California Legislative Update and Senate Bill 126

In this CHARTER EDtalk, we are honored to be joined by Branché Jones from Branché Jones Lobbying Firm, an expert in California charter school legislation and supporter of the charter school movement. Branché shares his insights into the most recent California legislative updates and how the new SB126 is going to affect charter schools across the state of California. To learn more, please watch the video or read the transcript below for the full story.



TRANSCRIPT

Ryan Eldridge: Hello, and welcome to this episode of CHARTER EDtalks. I’m Ryan Eldridge, Charter School Advisor for Charter School Capital, and I’m honored to be joined by Branché Jones from Branché Jones Lobbying Firm. And we’re here to discuss the California Legislature and Senate Bill 126. So Branché, I know that you’ve got your pulse on things, and we just wanted to find out a little bit more about how 126 is going to impact the charter schools in California.

About Senate Bill 126

Branché Jones: Sure. SB-126 is a culmination of about 15 years of efforts to apply conflict of interest provisions to charter schools in the state. It has the Brown Act in it, the Political Forum Act, the Public Records Act, and you’ll have to comply with government code 1090, which is the governing body of law for elected officials and board members. What it’s going to do is you’re actually going to have to change your provisions, how you operate your Board. Your governing structure may have to change, who you can hire, what terms they’ll be working for you under, things of that nature.
Additionally, for non-classroom-based schools, they have some teleconferencing provisions. So when you’re having a board meeting, there’ll have to be some type of device at every location where people can testify and hear what’s going on in the board meeting.
As I said in the beginning, it was about 15 years in the making. Charter schools have been able to fight it off and different descriptions of it, different bills, Assembly bills, Senate bills. The previous governor, Mr. Brown, was very supportive of charter schools, everybody knows, and he would not sign this piece of legislation.
This governor, Mr. Newsom, said in his campaign that he was going to enact some charter school transparency laws around conflict of interest and things of that nature. So, this bill actually passed in warp speed. It took one week to get through the State Assembly. State Senate first, one week to get through the State Assembly, then it was on the governor’s desk, and he signed it. It’ll go into effect on January 1st, 2020.
In my personal opinion, this was coming in some form or another. We had lived free of those laws since the inception of the Charter School Act, so this was kind of like government creep. It was coming.
Eldridge: Inevitable. Right?
Jones: One way or the other—it was. Correct. It was inevitable. Many schools already live under these provisions and adhere to these provisions. The one thing to add is the bill also applies those same provisions to charter school management corporations (CMOs), so anybody managing or running a charter school has to comply with all those laws as well. That’ll be something that I think people really have to make sure they have a tight grip on because you don’t want to be out of compliance with the statute. That would be reasons for revocation, and that could be the case in some places.
We know there are some interesting governance models out there, but that’s the one twist they put on the bill. So it applies to the entire charter school structure. There was little to no opposition because it was inevitable. The governor wanted this on his desk. He wanted it to be the first thing he signed, and he made sure everybody knew that. We all had our meeting in the Horseshoe with the staff. That’s the governor’s office. They explained the realities of the situation to us all. So this was going to happen, and it basically … It almost went through unanimously, with a couple Republicans in the State Senate and State Assembly voting against it.

What does this mean for the rest of 2019?

Jones: What this means moving forward for 2019, this is the first bill of many that will apply to charter schools. There’s 1505 that would take away your rights to appeal and do a number of wacky things. I know there are some amendments out there to it, but everyone will be in opposition to that. 1506 has not been amended yet at this date, but it will have a cap of some kind in it for charter schools. 1507 closes a loophole that says you can put your site … if you can’t find a location for your school in the district you’re authorized in, you can put it in the district next door. And 1508 will deal with districts … It hasn’t fully been amended, kind of like 1506. They’re working on the language, but it will deal with the financial impact charters have on districts and probably allow a district to deny a charter for fiscal reasons.
Now, the last point I’ll add is the governor has not … the administration hasn’t taken a position. We know people will be fighting these measures as they go through the State Assembly. I don’t know where the State Senate will be. I don’t know that they all reached the governor’s desk, but he did not want to put a cap or a moratorium in his piece of legislation. So that might hint as to where he is on it, but we’re not clear at this point. The only other thing to add is there’s a charter school commission that’s been created to look at the fiscal impact charters have on districts and should have a report out the end of June.
Eldridge: Okay
Jones: That’s the legislative makeup.
Eldridge: So some more information may be coming in the June timeframe, so you can maybe do another one of these with us?
Jones: Yes, we’ll do another one.
Eldridge: And get some updates?
Jones: Yes. And then after June, we’ll know. The governor’s May revision will be out, so we’ll know where the budget numbers are as well.
Eldridge: We appreciate it. This wraps up this version of Charter Ed Talks. We appreciate your time, and thanks for joining us.


Charter School Capital logoSince the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We provide growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!

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Charter School Honor RollNow Accepting Nominations for the 2019 Charter School Honor Roll

We are very excited to announce the nominations are now open for our second annual Charter School Honor Roll! The Charter School Honor Roll honors high-achieving charter schools from across the country.

About the Honor Roll

Currently, in its second year, the Charter School Honor Roll celebrates the outstanding work that charter schools around the nation are doing. We hope you’ll take a few minutes to nominate a school that exemplifies excellence in any of the following categories:
  • School growth
  • Student achievement
  • Community service
  • School leadership
  • Positive school climate
Our 2019 Charter School Honor Roll winners will be awarded a special gift package, free admission to the National Charter Schools Conference (in Las Vegas, Nevada June 30-July 3, 2019), and will be honored at an exclusive honoree awards event during the conference.
If you have a school you’d like to be considered, or if you’d like to nominate your own school, please click on the button below. We’re looking forward to reading your inspiring submission!

NOMINATE A SCHOOL

underperforming Charter Schools
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published here by ExelinEd on October 31, 2018, and written by Claire Voorhees, ExcelinEd’s National Director of Policy. We are focused on helping all students access quality education. So how do we best address underperforming charter schools? Some intervention strategies can certainly help, but what are some other options? Check out this article to learn about some other options.
We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support charter school growth and the advancement of the charter school movement as a whole. We hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable.


#AskExcelinEd: How can states address the challenges of school turnaround?

Three years into the ESSA era, the rubber has finally met the road. All 50 states and D.C. have approved plans, identified their first set of lowest-performing schools and are now undertaking the most difficult – and most important – task of all: school turnaround.
To support states, ExcelinEd has partnered with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and Chiefs for Change to provide information on leveraging federal funds and promoting rigorous, evidence-based turnaround strategies.
ExcelinEd is excited to release its first contribution from this partnership: School Interventions Under ESSA: Harnessing High-Performing Charter Operators. The brief reasons that states and districts can consider a wide variety of intervention strategies, such as replacing staff, improving curriculum and instruction and providing integrated student supports that address students’ health, emotional and behavioral needs.
However, in districts where schools fail to turn around—or have already been failing for multiple years—states should consider the one option that can give students languishing in low-performing schools a higher-quality option: bringing in high-performing charter schools.
This brief also builds on our earlier findings, How to Recruit High-Performing Charter Management Organizations to a New Region, to highlight strategies states can use to attract high-quality CMOs to districts where schools are struggling the most. These strategies fall into three main categories: leveraging state and federal funding; authorizer quality and operating autonomy; and talent pipelines.
We look forward to working with states as they address the challenge of school turnaround and ensuring their students receive a quality education.

 

Florida Elections UpdateFlorida Elections: State of the State

Elections Matter.
For the last several years a common phrase has been used by winning candidates everywhere. Elections matter. And that could not have been any more significant for school choice advocates in Florida than the most recent statewide elections.
In 1996, Jeb Bush partnered with community leaders and opened Florida’s first charter school in Liberty City in Miami-Dade County under legislation signed by then Democrat Governor, Lawton Chiles. Bush, a Republican, would go on to become Florida’s Governor in 1999 and together – with the Republican-controlled state Legislature – would control two of three branches of Florida’s state government for the next nineteen years. This Republican control resulted in legislation advancing school choice, particularly charter schools and charter school expansion.
During this time of Republican control, school choice opponents sought relief in the state’s court system to attack and beat back legislative policies favorable to school choice and charter schools. Over the past several years, the liberal-leaning Florida Supreme Court has been a major stumbling block to expanding school choice and charter schools in Florida. That all changed this past November.
Former Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis was elected Governor in November, and with it came the opportunity to appoint three new members of Florida’s Supreme Court. These appointments resulted from the vacancies created by three justices reaching the mandatory retirement age just as DeSantis was inaugurated as Florida’s newest Governor. These retiring justices were first appointed by previous Democrat Governors and helped keep the Court a more liberal body that routinely sided with school choice opponents in a number of high-profile cases it heard.
Most recently, the Court struck down a proposed constitutional amendment that would have set term limits on elected school board members. The amendment would also maintain the school board’s duties to public schools it establishes but would permit the state to operate, supervise, and control public schools not established by school board (charter schools or other schools of choice).
Shortly after his inauguration, Governor DeSantis appointed three very qualified, conservative justices to the Court, and as some observers have said, created one of the most conservative state Supreme Courts in the country.
When speaking about these appointments, newly elected Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez said, “(these appointments) will single-handedly be the most important thing for the future of this state that we have ever seen.”
Shortly after naming the three new justices, Governor DeSantis also selected former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Richard Corcoran, a staunch charter school proponent, as the new Commissioner of the Florida Department of Education.
These executive appointments signal a sea change in the state’s political landscape and send a clear message that Florida’s new Governor is serious about K-12 education, and even more serious about advancing school choice options in the state. His rhetoric on the campaign trail has translated into action, and charter school proponents in Florida should be very pleased with what they see over the next several years.
The recent Florida elections – and subsequent changes in leadership – are a great example of how much elections indeed matter.
About the Author: Larry Williams is the owner/principal at Larry Williams Consulting LLC. They offer comprehensive consulting and lobbying services in the legislative and executive branches of state government as well as state agencies. Larry Williams Consulting LLC has established a network of relationships within the legislative, executive, cabinet and government agency arena as well as extensive knowledge of the issues.


Charter School Capital logoSince the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We provide growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!

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California Charter School LegislationCalifornia Legislative Update: The Governor’s 2019 Budget

California Legislative Update: Thursday, Governor Gavin Newsom released the first budget of his administration. At the beginning of his press conference, he admitted that his presentation would be longer than most other Governor’s performances—and he did not disappoint, holding court for around 50 minutes. His budget includes a large reserve and lays out what will be the administration’s objectives over the next three years. It also includes a brief discussion of the need for charter school transparency, which he mentioned in his presentation. Below is an excellent description of the budget’s details by Gerry Shelton of Capitol Advisors. Gerry is an expert on California’s education laws and one of the most knowledgeable people that I know.


We’ve done a review and analysis of Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2019-20 Budget Proposal sent to you earlier today. While the proposed budget essentially includes the same amount of Proposition 98 spending as estimated by the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) in November, there is some very good news in the budget for schools. Governor Newsom is providing significant assistance to school employers struggling with increases in the pension contribution rates. This assistance is outside of Proposition 98, so does not reduce expenditures for other priorities, including providing a 3.46% cost of living adjustment (COLA) for LCFF and other programs.

Highlights of 2019-20 Budget Proposal

  • $143 billion in General Fund (GF) revenues in 2019-20
  • $18.5 billion total state budget reserves ($15.3 billion in the Rainy Day Fund)$80.7 billion Prop 98 guarantee
  • $3 billion one-time (non-Prop 98) payment for school employer CalSTRS liabilities
  • 3.46% COLA applied to LCFF and categoricals
  • Over $1 billion increased investment in early childhood services (details below)
  • $576 million in Prop 98 GF ($186 million of which is one-time) for expanded special education services and support
  • $1.5 billion in additional released school facilities bond funds authorized under Prop 51

Governor Newsom’s Approach

At his press conference earlier today, Governor Newsom repeatedly recognized former Governor Jerry Brown’s efforts to eliminate budget deficits, create a new budget surplus, and build a Rainy Day Fund to mitigate future economic downturns. He provided a more collaborative tone than Brown, giving credit to individual legislators who championed various issues (such as early learning, health care, pension costs, housing, etc.) that he highlighted in his press conference. Overall, Newsom was focused on finding the right balance between continued fiscal responsibility and increased investments in programs.
With respect to fiscal responsibility, Newsom slightly lowered revenue projections for future years, prioritized paying off debts and decreasing liabilities, increased reserves and provided additional “Safety Net” funding. The Governor also highlighted several areas in which he hopes to see significant investments, including a $1 billion investment in a rebranded Earned Income Tax Credit (now the “Working Family Tax Credit”), subsidies to ensure middle-class Californians can afford health insurance, emergency and disaster preparedness and response, and of course, K-14 education.
Below we provide a brief summary and analysis of the budget proposal, including revenues, Proposition 98 spending, and policy and funding changes to K-12 programs.

Revenues, General Fund, Debts and Liabilities, and Budget Reserves

Due to continued growth in California’s economy, the Department of Finance (DOF) estimates approximately $143 billion in total 2019-20 GF revenues (including transfers pursuant to Prop 2), and has revised its estimates upward for 2017-18 by $3 billion and for 2018-19 by $2.7 billion. Before transfers, this amounts to an $8.1 billion increase in GF revenues over the three fiscal years, as compared to the 2018 Budget Act. In addition to allowing an increase in state GF spending, this significant influx of revenue generates additional 2019-20 Prop 2 transfers to the Rainy Day Fund budget reserve, and an equivalent amount to pay down state debts and liabilities.
Though this budget is based on the assumption of continued economic growth, it does note that economic uncertainties, and even the likelihood of a future economic downturn, have been increasing. As a result, Governor Newsom proposes a $700 million increase to the Safety Net Reserve created in the 2018 Budget Act, bringing the total in this reserve to $900 million.
The budget also includes a $1.77 billion mandatory transfer to the Prop 2 Rainy Day Fund, as well as $2.3 billion in the discretionary Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties. Combined, this brings total state GF budget reserves to $18.5 billion by the end of 2019-20. The budget also projects that the Prop 2 Rainy Day Fund alone will rise to $19.4 billion by 2022-23.
Under Prop 2, the $1.77 billion transfer to the Rainy Day Fund also triggers an equal $1.77 billion payment toward reducing state debts and liabilities; the budget proposes to meet this requirement by paying down the state’s retiree health and unfunded pension liabilities by that amount. In addition, Governor Newsom is proposing $4 billion to eliminate other state budgetary debts. Those actions include the full repayment of loans from special funds made during the Great Recession, and elimination of deferrals of state payroll and CalPERS payments also implemented during the recession.

Proposition 98 and LCFF

The DOF calculates the 2019-20 Proposition 98 guarantee to be $80.7 billion, an increase of $2.8 billion over the 2018-19 Prop 98 guarantee provided in the 2018 Budget Act. The DOF’s Prop 98 calculation is consistent with the estimate provided by the LAO in November 2018.
Due to continued declines in both average daily attendance (ADA) and GF revenue growth, the Prop 98 guarantees for both 2017-18 and 2018-19 are adjusted downward by $120 million and $526 million, respectively, in the Governor’s proposed budget. However, the Governor also proposes to hold K-14 education harmless with respect to those adjustments, by over-appropriating the guarantee in 2017-18 and using $686 million in Prop 98 settle-up funds to cover what could have been a reduction in funding for 2018-19.
Growth in Prop 98 allows the Governor to cover a 3.46% COLA, providing a $2 billion increase to district and county office of education LCFF allocations and a $187 million increase for certain categoricals. This growth also allows additional funding to expand special education services, further support the state’s new accountability system, begin to rebuild the state’s education data systems and support his early learning agenda.
Despite this growth in spending and the one-time funding to “buy-down” employer contribution rates in CalSTRS, there remains a growing interest among school advocates to focus on addressing California’s woefully insufficient per-pupil spending. Concerns about funding levels are particularly acute given the rapid increase in the costs of running schools, including everything from pension to health benefits to transportation to education technology expenses.
Discussions continue to focus on creating new funding goals, perhaps a new LCFF target that moves California closer to the per-pupil funding provided by the top 10% of states. Even after all of the increases in the Prop 98 guarantee since the Great Recession, “full implementation” of the LCFF, and continued growth in Prop 98, California remains in the bottom 10% of states in cost-adjusted per-pupil spending.

Immediate Reduction in CalSTRS Employer Contribution Rate

By proposing to invest $3 billion in one-time funds towards K-14 pension liabilities, the Governor hopes to free up billions of dollars in operational funds for school districts: $700 million over the next two years and approximately $6.9 billion over the next three decades.
For years, school districts and county offices have underscored the need to bolster the financial sustainability of not only the underfunded pension systems but local education agencies (LEAs) themselves, due to rising pension costs. Governor Newsom’s first budget validates and responds to those concerns.
In the short-term, a total of $700 million from the non-Proposition 98 side of the budget will be provided to buy down the employer contribution rates in 2019-20 and 2020-21, the final two years of the CalSTRS funding plan’s statutory rate increases. By offsetting these rate increases, the Governor will keep an equivalent amount of money in the classroom.
The Budget also proposes to invest $2.3 billion towards school employers’ long-term unfunded liability at CalSTRS. The prepayment is expected to reduce contribution rates by 0.5 percent (ongoing), or approximately $6.9 billion over the next three decades.
Elsewhere, the Budget proposes $5.9 billion in GF expenditures to address the state’s long-term pension liabilities—including a one-time $3 billion cash supplemental pension payment to CalPERS and $2.9 billion (using Proposition 2 funds) over the next four years to CalSTRS. These supplemental pension payments are intended to curb the growing costs of the state’s retirement programs and are estimated to result in $14.6 billion in savings over the long term.

Early Childhood Expansion

As promised on the campaign trail, Governor Newsom proposes to expand child care and early learning programs.
State Preschool – As a step towards his goal of universal preschool in California, the Governor proposes to increase access to the existing State Preschool Program for all low-income four-year-olds. Specifically, the Administration proposes to:

  • Provide $124.9 million non-Prop 98 GF in 2019-20 and additional investments in the next two state budgets to fund a total of 200,000 preschool slots by 2021-22.
  • Eliminate the existing requirement that families of four-year-olds provide proof of parent employment or enrollment in higher education to access full-day programs.
  • Shift $297.1 million Prop 98 GF for part-day State Preschool Programs at non-LEAs to non-Prop 98 GF, to allow non-LEA providers to draw down full-day, full-year reimbursement from a single funding source and to provide the flexibility to make better use of their contract funding.

Full-Day Kindergarten – The Governor proposes $750 million one-time non-Prop 98 GF for eligible school districts to build or retrofit facilities for full-day Kindergarten programs. See the Facilities section below for additional information.
Child Care – The Administration proposes $500 million one-time non-Prop 98 GF to expand subsidized child care facilities in the state and improve the education and professional development of child care providers. The Governor also proposes $247 million in one-time funds to the California State University to be used for child care infrastructure for students on college campuses.
CalWorks Stage 2 and 3 Child Care – The Governor proposes a net increase of $119.4 million (non-Prop 98) to reflect an increase in the number of CalWORKs child care cases. Total costs for Stage 2 and 3 are $597 million (Stage 2) and $482.2 million (Stage 3).
Child Savings Accounts (CSAs) – The Administration proposes $50 million one-time GF (non-Prop 98) to support pilot projects and partnerships with First 5 California, local First 5 Commissions, local government, and philanthropy to increase access to CSAs for incoming kindergartners.

School Facilities

School Facilities Bonds – In a major reversal from the prior administration, Governor Newsom proposes to issue $1.5 billion in Proposition 51 (2016) bonds next year and increase the Office of Public School Construction’s funding by $1.2 million to speed the processing of applications. This shift reflects—almost exactly—the requests by the educational advocacy community over the past two years. It also reflects a $906 million year-over-year increase in bond sales compared to the current fiscal year.
Facilities Funding to Implement Universal Full-Day Kindergarten – Citing the long-term academic benefit of children attending full-day, high-quality early primary education programs, the Governor proposes $750 million in one-time, non-Prop 98 GF to eligible school districts to construct new or retrofit existing facilities for full-day kindergarten programs or “to fund other activities that reduce barriers to providing full-day kindergarten.” This would build on last year’s $100 million grant program for full-day kindergarten facilities.
Potential Threat to District Developer Fees – In response to the housing crisis—both supply and affordability—the Governor has highlighted the need to address local developer fees, which he believes contribute substantially to the cost of development. It is not clear the Governor was referring to developer fees used to cover the costs of building new schools, incurred when home construction creates local demand for educational facilities. The Governor stated in his budget presentation that he will create a task force on the subject.

Accountability, Data, and the Statewide System of Support

County Offices of Education – COEs were given a major role to play in the overhaul of the state’s accountability system. To support the role COEs play in supporting their districts, the proposal provides an increase of $20.2 million Prop 98 GF dollars, consistent with the formula that was adopted in last year’s budget.
Improved and Expanded Data Systems– Governor Newsom put a high priority on improved educational data systems throughout his campaign. Reflecting that priority, the budget proposal provides $10 million to plan and begin development of a longitudinal data system that would integrate existing data systems to provide more comprehensive information on how students are progressing from cradle to career.
Promoting User-Friendly Accountability Systems – To promote community interaction with the electronic pieces of the accountability system, the Budget Proposal provides $350,000 one-time money to merge the Dashboard, the LCAP electronic template, and other reporting documents, including the School Accountability Report Card.

Special Education

The administration proposes an infusion of $576 million Proposition 98 GF dollars, of which $186 million is proposed as one-time. This is more than likely a response to annual calls from special education advocates that the system is administratively burdensome, underfunded, and too often ineffective at increasing academic performances of those it serves.
These new grants will be focused on LEAs with high concentrations of either special education students or unduplicated pupils. Allowable expenditures of these dollars appear to be fairly broad, and can range from special education supports outside of an existing individualized education program to preventive measures that might lessen future needs. The Administration is not proposing any major structural shifts in the way special education services are provided across the state.


Charter School Capital logoSince the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We provide growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!

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