Funding charter school facilities can be a perfectly sound investment in quality education for low-income communities--if lenders and investors scrutinize a school’s track record, says a report by LISC and the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. Too often, funders don’t look at data indicating whether a school might not repay a loan, or even close. Good communication with authorizers is a key to good investment.

A LISC partnership in Houston helps charter schools fill the need for high-quality education in underserved neighborhoods through a smart bond program.

By Reena Abraham,Vice President for LISC Education

If you build them, we will come: that's the message, loud and clear, from hundreds of thousands of families whose kids are on wait lists for charter schools in low-income neighborhoods across the country. But expanding the number of high-quality schools to keep pace with demand requires visionary financing, writes LISC charter school funding expert, Reena Abraham, in a Huffington Post blog. In connecting schools to funding from tax-exempt bonds and federal New Market Tax Credits, LISC has helped open scores of classrooms and spur neighborhood development at the same time.