State Policy Analysis: Charter School and District Bond Offerings discusses how charter school leaders and advocates have struggled to find suitable and affordable facilities for their students because not all charter schools have equal access to funding through school bonds. Many state charter laws have placed the responsibility for finding and paying for facilities to charter schools themselves leaving only a few bonds available to the public charter school sector.

A handful of state statutes address charter schools and local school district bonds for facilities. Four states specifically address charter access to school district bond revenues for facilities funding, though several implementation challenges limit their effectiveness, including:

•  Access to local tax revenue through elections requires explicit school district approval.
• Important steps in the process of accessing bond elections are incomplete or ambiguous.
• Inadequate state-level oversight or enforcement to ensure statutes providing charter school access to bond elections are implemented as intended. 
• Complicated eligibility requirements can significantly limit the use of funds or qualifying facilities. 
• Election timelines may not be conducive to charter school participation.

Access the State Policy Analysis: Charter School and District Bond Offerings Report