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April 5, 2004
District Charter School Program Receives Boost from US Government
(Washington, DC) The Banking Bureau of the District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB) announced the receipt of a $5 million grant from the US Department of Education’s Credit Enhancement For Charter School Facilities Program. This is the first grant that DISB’s Office of Public Charter School Financing and Support Program has received outside of congressional appropriations.
Under the grant, funds are provided on a competitive basis to public and nonprofit entities to help charter schools improve their facilities. The money can be used to purchase, lease, or renovate school buildings. DISB will help the recipients leverage the federal funds by making the money available to guarantee and insure leases, to encourage private lending, and to establish “incubator” housing that charter schools can use until they raise enough money to purchase their own facility.
“This grant will strengthen the charter school program in the District of Columbia,” said DISB Commissioner Lawrence H. Mirel, “which Mayor Williams supports as a way to ensure that District children have access to high quality education in a safe and healthy learning environment.”
“This is a major accomplishment for our agency and for the District,” said Jennipher Snowden, director of the Office of Public Charter School Financing and Support of DISB. “Working with the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, local banks, and other financial institutions, and people both in and out of District government, we have made the District one of the strongest jurisdictions for public charter schools in the nation.”
Other recipients of funds from the Department of Education’s $37.3 million Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities Program include charter schools in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. |
