Additional bonding capacity available to charter schools

The Permanent School Fund’s Bond Guarantee Program will now be able to back about $550 million in additional charter school bonds thanks to action taken by the State Board of Education in February.

Board members agreed to increase the multiplier used in calculating the capacity of the Permanent School Fund. This action provides an estimated $249 million more in bonding capacity for charter schools as of March 2017 and a projected $317 million in additional capacity as of Sept. 1, 2017.

About $1 billion in charter school bonds have already received backing through the state’s Bond Guarantee Program. Due to capacity limitations, additional charter school bonds could not be backed by this program unless the multiplier was increased.