LISC’s charter school finance team analyzed the full range of charter school bond issuance from 2015-2022, building on three prior reports that catalogued the history of the sector. “With public charter schools now educating more than 3.7 million students nationwide, and against the backdrop of unprecedented learning loss stemming from the pandemic, preserving dollars to invest in core academic programs is of heightened importance,” the report states.

A new LISC internship program is helping close opportunity gaps for HBCU students while introducing them to important aspects of the community development field. “This program is part of our work to address systemic racial barriers that keep young people from gaining the experience and connections they need to compete for good jobs,” said LISC President Denise Scott.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) awarded 265 organizations more than $180 million in 2021 Financial Assistance (FA) awards. LISC received $3.4 million through several FA-related funding streams to expand efforts that fuel healthy food, charter school financing, and affordable housing in underserved communities.

LISC has named Dawn Deck, a dedicated community investment leader with deep roots in Spartanburg, as executive director of LISC Upstate South Carolina—an office with ambitious plans to invest in affordable housing, economic development, health, education and jobs throughout the region.

This week is National Charter Schools Week, and LISC is pleased to announce a second round of $800,000 Spark Opportunity Grants to 21 persevering charters schools across the country—schools that have demonstrated their commitment to educating diverse populations of students and to organizational and academic excellence. The awards will help these schools pursue renovations or build new permanent facilities.

LISC and the Walton Family Foundation have announced the first recipients of the Spark Opportunity Grant Program, a $2 million initiative to provide planning grants to support the creation of affordable facilities for schools in Opportunity Zones and other under-resourced communities. Twenty-six high-performing schools will receive the initial round of funding, and a second round is already open to applicants.