Learn about Equitable School Revolving Fund, including Featured News, Loan Portfolio, and Program Administration Team.
Equitable School Revolving Fund is a nonprofit social impact fund created to provide long-term, low-cost facility loans that allow high-performing charter schools to maximize the resources they dedicate to students.
High-performing charter schools promote bright futures for children across America. ESRF believes these schools should borrow under terms comparable to traditional public school districts.
ESRF is an A-rated pooled fund that offers high-credit, long-term, scalable bond investment opportunities.
A $120 million deal from a start up, Equitable Facilities Fund, whose mission is “to make it easier, faster and less expensive for charter schools to put down roots in sustainable facilities,” will price Thursday amid a busy new-issue week.
Non-profit is floating first bond for revolving loan fund. The loans would cut reliance on high-yield muni-bond market.
The A-Rated, Nonprofit Lending Fund Provides Long-Term, Low-Cost Facilities Financing to High-Quality Public Charter Schools. The Issuance Will Allow More Resources to Directly Reach 30,000 Students.
Equitable Facilities Fund (EFF) will issue $100 million in A-rated tax-exempt bonds to further its mission of supporting an equitable, high-quality public education for all students by providing financing to excellent public charter schools to build, grow and renovate facilities.
Through EFF’s Preliminary Official Statement, the nonprofit lender has laid out plans that will support 30,000 public charter school students by providing affordable funds for their schools’ buildings, equipment and other capital projects, thus directing more resources into the classroom and helping students realize academic success and a lifetime of opportunity.
EFF is supported by the Walton Family Foundation’s Building Equity Initiative(BEI), an unprecedented effort to make it easier and more affordable for public charter schools to access equitable, affordable facilities funding.
“This next step for the Building Equity Initiative will help public charter schools more easily and affordably access facilities and free up resources to go where they belong, with teachers and students,” said Walton Family Foundation board member Alice Walton.
Since launching in 2018, EFF has committed more than $158 million in low-interest loans supporting 11 public charter facilities projects across seven states. To date, these loans have saved public charter schools and networks over $15 million and allowed them to better serve more than 30,000 total students.
EFF pools public charter school loans in an innovative manner to provide long-term, fixed-rate loans with terms that public charter schools could not otherwise secure. Adapting a revolving loan fund model that has successfully supported more than $100 billion in clean water projects for three decades, EFF is the first pooled fund of its kind for public charter schools. The fund’s team of finance and public charter school experts have formulated a best-in-class loan underwriting and monitoring system and plan to raise additional capital for a target near-term fund size of $600 million to benefit high-quality public education.
"Every high-quality public school deserves equitable, permanent financing,” said EFF Founder and CEO Anand Kesavan. “This is what we're striving to provide at EFF—with a proven approach that has the potential to positively impact thousands of students. That's the beauty of it. We're combining traditional investment structures and cutting-edge philanthropy and putting it all to work against educational inequity."
Unlike district schools, which typically operate out of buildings acquired and financed from credit founded on a tax base, public charter schools must fund facilities costs from their operating budgets. This can lead to uneven distribution of resources for public school students attending public charter schools, where valuable resources are directed away from classroom instruction in order to pay for the school facility. EFF, by providing credit enhancement and low-cost permanent capital, aims to ensure public charter schools can direct more resources to helping students realize meaningful academic and life outcomes.
“Equitable Facilities Fund has been an incredible partner for us,” said Jeremy Chiappetta, CEO of Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy (BVP), which received a $16 million loan from the EFF to finance the acquisition of a previously leased high school facility for its 1,959 K-12 students in northeast Rhode Island. The loan will save BVP, one of the highest-performing school networks in Rhode Island, over $60,000 annually throughout its 30-year term.
“As a relatively young and growing organization, our ability to access facilities funding was limited. The EFF team, however, not only provided us with very favorable financing terms, but also provided sage strategic advice and counsel. As a result of this project, we are able to reallocate hundreds of thousands of dollars into classrooms.”
Location: Los Angeles, California
Enrollment: Network: 12,982; Obligated Group: 8,154
Loan Amount: ~$28.0 million to advance refund bonds (Expected to close 9/30/2019)
School Site: www.laalliance.org
Ratings Direct: Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools
Obligor Summary: Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools Obligor Summary
Founded in 2004, Alliance College-Ready Public Schools is one of the largest charter school networks in the nation, operating 25 high-performing middle and high schools that educate nearly 13,000 students from Los Angeles’ most underserved communities. 95% of Alliance scholars have graduated from high school and been accepted to college, and the network’s schools have been recognized amongst the best in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, Newsweek, and the US and California Departments of Education.
Equitable School Revolving Fund has committed to funding a $28.0 million, 30-year, fixed-rate loan to Alliance to advance refund bonds used for the construction of two middle school campuses and to refinance a New Market Tax Credit transaction.
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Enrollment: 1,982
Loan Amount: ~$26.4 million (Expected to close 8/31/2019)
School Site: www.jamesirwin.org
Ratings Direct: James Irwin Charter Schools
Obligor Summary: James Irwin Obligor Summary
James Irwin Charter Schools (JICS) opened its doors in the fall of 2000 with a vision to create a rigorous educational program that challenges students to achieve their academic potential. Since then, the school has grown to operate 5 schools and has established a legacy of excellence. JICS has been recognized nationally, statewide and locally for academic excellence and achievement by publications including US News & World Report and The Washington Post. The network’s programming prioritizes the “5 Pillars of Character”: Honesty, Integrity, Respect, Responsibility, and Excellence.
Equitable School Revolving Fund has committed to funding a $26.4 million loan to refinance bank notes that were used to acquire, construct, and expand JICS school facilities.
Location: Cumberland, Rhode Island
Enrollment: Network: 1959; High School: 350
Loan Amount: $16 million
School Savings: ~$1.8M over 30 year term
School Link: www.blackstonevalleyprep.org
Ratings Direct: Blackstone Valley Prep
Obligor Summary: Blackstone Valley Prep Obligor Summary
Blackstone Valley Prep (BVP) opened its doors in 2009 to 26 kindergarten scholars and has since grown to serve 1,959 students across three elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school. BVP teachers and staff live by the mantra that “college begins in kindergarten” and have implemented a rigorous curriculum that has produced some of the strongest academic results in Rhode Island. The network utilizes a “diverse-by-design” model, enrolling students from four racially and socioeconomically diverse communities. Its culturally responsive curriculum aims to reflect and incorporate the range of experiences and backgrounds of its students. During the 2017-2018 school year, BVP juniors and seniors earned SAT scores that placed them in the top 10% in the state in Math and top 20% in Reading.
Equitable School Revolving Fund provided a $16.0M loan to finance the acquisition of the high school facility that BVP had previously leased from Civic Builders. BVP locked in a 30-year fixed rate loan that will save the network up to ~$1.8M over 30 years compared to projected lease payments.
“Equitable School Revolving Fund has been an incredible partner for Blackstone Valley Prep. As a relatively young and growing organization, our ability to access facilities funding was limited. The ESRF team, however, not only provided us with very favorable financing terms, but also provided sage strategic advice and counsel. As a result of this project, we are able to reallocate tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars into classrooms.”
– Jeremy Chiappetta, CEO
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