Some Minnesota Charters Using Lease Aid to Purchase or Build Buildings

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More than 20 out of 180 of Minnesota's charter schools have used a loophole in a state lease aid provision to buy or build their own buildings using public funds. The lease aid was approved in 1997 to help charters rent space, in order to compensate for the fact that they are unable to levy taxes or use bond measures to buy property. The charters have been using the provision to buy or build their own facilities by establishing nonprofit groups to make the purchase. Deborah Parker Junod, project manager of a 2003 audit that reviewed lease aid, said the practice is "clearly circumventing the law." Some charter leaders said they welcome public discussion of the practice. Most say it would be easier to be able to directly own their own buildings; tying funding to an enrollment-based figure such as lease aid, they argue, eliminates the possibility of expansions that will not necessarily bring in more students. State Education Commissioner Alice Seagren, who helped craft the lease aid program as a legislator, said the current law has forced charters' hands. "Right now, there isn't any other way," she said.

Source: Post Bulletin
Date: 02/28/2008