State Bonds Could Fund Charter Renovations
By Daniel Potter
February 24, 2010
The state legislature could give charter schools a new way to raise money to build and renovate their school buildings. The bill, sponsored by Representative Beth Harwell, would let the state help charters raise money through bond sales.
Finding a building to operate in is the charter’s responsibility. Harwell says most start-up charters are unlikely to take out bonds to build a new school from the ground up, but may instead renovate older buildings.
“For example, Metro Nashville has plenty of school buildings that currently aren’t even being used. So it would make sense that they could go in and maybe bring them up to codes when it comes to handicapped-accessible and some other issues, and they’d have an adequate building.”
Harwell says by using the state’s bond rating, charters will be able to borrow money at a lower price.
EXTRA:
Matt Throckmorton runs the Tennessee Charter Schools Association. He says right now charters are allowed to go through their local governments to sell bonds, but that never happens.
Throckmorton says going through the state to sell bonds instead would smooth the process, because using local governments doesn’t add up.
“There’s just some inherent maybe conflict of interest asking a district which has all their own inherent responsibilities to then turn around and prioritize a charter school’s responsibility when it comes to the issuing of a local bond… Going this direction would actually be the least intrusive.”
Throckmorton says state bonds would likely be reserved for charters with a proven track record. And he specifies the measure would only raise cash for buildings. That means the decision to approve charters would remain in the hands of the district.
Source: Nashville Public Radio