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CSDC - The Charter Schools Development Corporation - is a non-profit organization established to help assist public charter schools with the acquisition and financing of educational facilities and related capital improvements.
Through our Building Block Fund program we provide qualifying public charter schools with credit enhancements that allow them to secure more affordable loans and leases for their facilities.
Through our Turnkey Facilities Program we offer qualifying schools space for lease - at market or below-market cost - in CSDC-owned facilities on an interim basis.
And through Charter FS, a division of CSDC, we provide knowledgeable, thoughtful and independent advice to guide charter schools through the financing maze.
CSDC's mission is to promote excellence, innovation and parental choice in public education by assisting public charter schools with their facilities financing needs, and to work at the public policy level to improve the laws governing the financing of charter school capital projects.
Our mission is critical because, unlike traditional schools, charter schools have neither a ready source of capital for facilities and other basic needs, nor the bonding authority to address capital funding requirements. Also, per-pupil funding from the states is often inadequate and inequitable compared to that of traditional public schools. As a result, virtually all charter schools must use educational funding to cover capital budget shortfalls.
CSDC was founded in1997 as non-profit corporation established to serve the charter school community - the most dynamic, innovative and fastest growing segment of American K-12 education, and the catalyst, through more competition and choice, for the systemic reform and improvement of poor performing traditional public schools.
In 1998, CSDC secured a federal appropriation to design a credit-enhancement program that would leverage private financing for charter school facilities.
Using the District of Columbia as a model for a national approach, CSDC's intensive market research and analysis of charter schools, banks and other lenders helped shape the creation and design of a credit enhancement program that has become a valuable resource to charter school operators. This CSDC initiated legislative effort resulted in Congress appropriating over $160 million for the Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities Program, a grant program intended to leverage funds through credit enhancement initiatives in order to assist charter schools in using private sector capital to acquire, construct, renovate, or lease academic facilities. CSDC is the single largest grant recipient to date under the program, receiving $21.6 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Education to expand its efforts beyond D.C. and provide facilities-financing solutions to charter schools nationwide.
In October 2007, through our merger with Detroit, Michigan-based Charter FS, we extended our services to include financial consulting services to charter schools, making the expanded CSDC the leading financial partner and facility solutions provider to charter schools nationally. |
Mission