LISC wins $5MM federal grant to support new, expanded charter school facilities in low-income communities
8 Aug 2012
Contact:Colleen Mulcahy, LISC Communications Reena Bhatia, LISC EFFC |
For Immediate Release:August 8, 2012 |
NEW YORK (August 8, 2012)—The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has awarded the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) a $5 million grant to help finance the development, expansion and improvement of public charter school facilities serving low-income students and neighborhoods.
LISC is the largest grantee to date of the ED Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities Program, through which ED has awarded more than $242 million to 20 organizations from 2001 to 2011. These grants have leveraged more than $2.7 billion in private capital for 428 charter schools. LISC has received a total of $41.5 million for its charter school financing work and as of 2011, has leveraged $421.9 million for 72 charter schools.
“In so many ways, this grant will have a significant, direct impact on the lives of families grappling with low-performing schools in their communities,” said Reena Bhatia, vice president of LISC Education Programs.
“It will support new and expanding high-performing schools for students who have too few opportunities to succeed. And in doing so, it will create jobs, improve streetscapes and contribute to broader community revitalization in places long abandoned by the private market,” Bhatia said.
LISC will use the funds to leverage loan capital to provide financing for charter school facilities. The federal funds will attract private dollars to help move charter projects forward.
”It’s clear that good schools connect to safer streets, healthier families, more stable housing markets and stronger commercial corridors. Parents want more options. Neighborhoods need more options. And that doesn’t happen without creative programs like this one,” Bhatia said.
This is LISC’s fifth grant through the ED program. Overall, since 1997, LISC has invested $204 million in 170 public charter school facilities creating 68,000 high-quality seats around the country as part of its Building Sustainable Communities initiative to help distressed neighborhoods become good places to live.
About LISC
LISC combines corporate, government and philanthropic resources to help nonprofit community development corporations revitalize distressed neighborhoods. Since 1980, LISC has raised $12 billion to build or rehab 289,000 affordable homes and develop 46 million square feet of retail, community and educational space nationwide. LISC support has leveraged nearly $40 billion in total development activity. For more information, visit www.lisc.org.
Downloads
> Formatted version of release text above (PDF, 16KB)
Also See:
> Treasury Department’s CDFI Fund directs $3.5MM to LISC’s healthy food, school financing work in low-income neighborhoods (PDF, 15KB)
Article Type: Press Release