Giving Compass' Take:

• Walton Family Foundation shares insights into helping public charter schools to find, secure, and renovate facilities based on the Building Equity Initiative.

• What support do charter schools in your area need? How can the learnings listed here be applied more broadly? 

• Learn about the importance of facilities for charter schools. 

Across the country, every day, educators show up for their students. They work tirelessly — planning lessons, tutoring after school, opening doors, calling parents — to put children on a path to economic mobility and the American dream. For more than three decades, the Walton Family Foundation has worked to make it easier for teachers, principals and innovative leaders to serve the students, families and communities that need them most.

We know the barriers are numerous. But we also know that real estate shouldn’t be one of them. Be it identifying an affordable building or renovating an existing space for expansion, school operators face a myriad of facilities challenges that stem from inequitable access to public funding, an intimidating array of financing options and limited technical expertise. By any measure the facilities challenge is broad in its scope and diverts resources away from the classrooms.

That is why in 2016, the Walton Family Foundation (WFF) launched the Building Equity Initiative (BEI), an unprecedented effort to make it easier and more affordable for public charter schools to find, secure and renovate facilities. To date, thousands of students in more than 100 schools are in new or renovated schools or have received facilities technical assistance with support from $185 million in BEI funds.

As year three comes to a close, the big ideas funded by the BEI — the Equitable Facilities Fund, the Facilities Investment Fund, Spark Opportunity Grant Program and a network of expert technical assistance — are now delivering concrete solutions and community impact. Among the 2019 highlights:

  • EFF made history with a first-of-its-kind public bond issue of $111 million to provide high-credit, low-in - terest loans for charter school facilities;
  • The broader financial marketplace is responding — from offering lower interest rates to incentivizing more first-time funders to lend to charter schools; and
  • More than 140 schools applied to the Spark Opportunity Grant Program, seeking funding and support to bring high-quality schools to economically challenged communities.

Moving forward, we will measure success by the number of students able to attend high-quality public charter schools, the amount of new private capital invested in charter facilities and the improved willingness of the capital community to provide greater access to low-cost financing for charter school operators.

Helping educators alleviate facilities-related burdens requires significant resources and support from partners across the private, public and philanthropic sectors. We are grateful to our initial partners — Bank of America, Civic Builders, Charter Facility Solutions and Pacific Charter School Development — as well as our growing network of associates along with historic WFF partners as this initiative continues to expand its reach and impact.