Matthew Joseph is a Senior Policy Advisor at ExcelinEd.
Nationwide, over 3 million students are enrolled in public charter schools, and an additional 2 million students want to attend a charter school but cannot access one. Despite their obvious success, public charter schools often lack access to affordable facilities.
Traditional public schools can raise local funding specifically for facilities. Charter schools cannot. Instead, they generally must pay for facilities with their school operating revenue—which is intended to pay for student instruction and is already significantly lower than what traditional public schools receive.
ExcelinEd’s new brief Building for Success: How States Can Address Charter School Facility Needs can help states determine how well charter school facility needs are being met with existing state policies. The brief introduces a Charter School Facility Index which states can use to assess whether they are addressing the full facility needs of charter schools.
Read our policy summary or explore the full brief to learn how your state can apply the Charter Facility Index and advance high-quality education options for students in your state.
