The U.S. Department of Education announced today that organizations in Arizona, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New York, and Washington, D.C., will receive $37.3 million under the Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities Grant Program. Together, these grantees will serve charter schools in Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin, and other states, as well.

Under this program, funds are provided on a competitive basis to public and nonprofit entities, and consortia of those entities, to leverage other funds and help charter schools obtain school facilities through such means as purchase, lease, and donation. Grantees may also use grants to leverage funds to help charter schools construct and renovate school facilities.

"This program complements our efforts under No Child Left Behind to give parents more options for enhancing their child's education through school choice," said Education Secretary Paige Rod Paige. "And it helps ensure that charter schools are located in facilities that are conducive to teaching and learning."

To help leverage funds for charter school facilities, grant recipients may, among other things, guarantee and insure debt to finance charter school facilities; guarantee and insure leases for personal and real property; facilitate a charter school's facilities financing by identifying potential lending sources, encouraging private lending, and other similar activities; and establish charter school facility "incubator" housing that new charter schools may use until they can acquire a facility on their own.

The department used the grant slate developed for the Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities Program in Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 to make new grant awards in FY 2004, because high-quality applications remained on last year's grant slate. Furthermore, the department is supplementing all four FY 2003 grant recipients and three applicants under the FY 2001 grant competition for the Charter School Facility Financing Demonstration Grant Program (the precursor to the Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities program) to their full grant request levels.

Limited funding was available for new awards under this program in FY 2004. Selecting additional grantees in FY 2004 from the existing slate of applicants enabled the department to put this money to work for charter schools quickly.

"We will continue to find ways to help get more charter schools up and running across the nation," said Nina Rees, deputy under secretary of the Office of Innovation and Improvement "Finding and securing a sound facility to house a charter school is one of the biggest challenges. This program helps with funds for that purpose and complements our efforts to expand school choice for many students."

The following organizations will receive grants under this program:

Massachusetts Development Finance Agency
75 Federal Street
Boston
Contact: Rebecca Sullivan, 617-330-2000
$4,025,000

Center for Community Self-Help
301 West Main Street
Durham, N.C.
Contact: Marc Hunt, 828-253-5251
$1,277,500

Charter School Development Corporation
1090 Vermont Avenue, N.W., Suite #800
Washington, D.C.
Contact: Joel Scharfer, 202-454-9919
$8,600,000

Department of Banking and Financial Institutions
1400 L Street, N.W., Suite 400
Washington, D.C.
Contact: Jennipher Snowden, 202-727-1563
$5,026,250

NCB Development Corporation
1725 Eye Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C.
Project Director,
Annie Donovan
202-336-7677
$5,600,000

Local Initiatives Support Corporation
733 Third Avenue
New York
Project Director:
Barbara Page
212-455-9819 $4,000,000

Raza Development Fund
111 W. Monroe St., Suite #1610
Phoenix
Project Director: Mark Van Brunt
(602) 417-1401
$8,750,000

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