Study to Senate panel: Idaho financing tools cut charter-school facility costs, free funds for teachers

Matthew Joseph, a senior policy adviser at the nonprofit AccelinEd, told the Idaho Senate Education Committee that state-designed financing supports have sharply reduced charter-school facility costs and freed operating dollars for instruction. Joseph said the measures have produced an estimated $113,000,000 in total savings and, when annualized, allow the average charter school in Idaho to retain the equivalent of 10 teachers per year.

Joseph framed the issue around three ways states commonly help charter schools with facilities: direct funding, access to surplus district buildings, and financing support. "What states including Idaho are doing is they're doing a variety of things," Joseph said. He said Idaho combines a short-term revolving loan fund for new schools with a long-term "credit enhancement" program described in the presentation as a moral-obligation backstop that lowers interest rates when charters refinance into long-term debt.

Why it matters: Joseph said charter schools typically cannot access…