SACRAMENTO, CA – Today, the California State Auditor released findings of an audit of the state’s Charter School Facility Grant program, which provides much needed funding for California’s charter public school facilities. The findings confirmed that the program serves a valuable purpose in providing high-quality facilities to public school students attending charter schools.
“This comprehensive audit of the Charter School Grant Program reinforces just how important the program is to California’s public school system. Building and maintaining high-quality school facilities are one of the largest hurdles facing our state’s charter schools. The Charter School Facility Grant Program provides a critical source of state funding for charter schools looking to secure adequate facilities,” said Myrna Castrejón, President and CEO of the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA). “The majority of California charter public school students benefitting from this program are Black and Latino, and from low-income households. This program is an important lifeline to help charter schools provide high-quality education opportunities for all students. We believe that the fair and thorough analysis of these programs concluded by the California Bureau of State Audits reaffirms CCSA’s understanding that there are already sufficient regulations in place to effectively run the program.”
The Summary of the State Auditors findings includes, “The Facility Grant Program provides state funding to subsidize charter schools’ facilities rent and lease costs and most of the recipient schools enroll a sizeable percentage of students from low income households. We found that charter schools that received program funding closed less often than other charter schools, and the schools we selected for review were often located in areas needing additional classroom space.”
More from the State Audit summary, “Despite stakeholder concerns that some charter schools may be improperly benefiting from the two programs, we found among the charter schools and their closely associated entities that we reviewed that each entity had acted in alignment with each program’s requirements in state law.”
The requesters of this audit had raised several concerns related to the program, which CCSA previously noted were based on incomplete or outdated information and erroneous assumptions. CCSA believes this audit confirms that the State Treasurer’s Office expertly administers the Facilities Grant Program under an extensive and rigorous set of statutes and implementing regulations which include the safeguards necessary to protect the public funding made available to charter schools.
The complete findings of the audit can be found on the State Auditor’s website.
About the California Charter Schools Association
The vision of the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) is to build great public schools of joy and rigor that prepare all California students for success in college, career, community, and life. The mission of CCSA is to meet parent, educator, and community need for great public school options by supporting and advocating for high quality non-profit charter schools and sharing their success throughout California’s public schools. Learn more.
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