Sweating the Big Stuff

The Washington-based National Alliance for Public Charter Schools reports that about 400 new charters have opened this fall, bringing the total number of charter schools to 4,600, with a national enrollment of 1.4 million. But charters rely heavily on the credit and bond markets to finance buildings, start-up, and cash-flow. And such funding is becoming much more expensive, or drying up altogether, in the wake of the global financial implosion, experts on charter finance and banking industry sources say. At the same time, a number of charter school authorizers meeting in Indianapolis this week reported they aren't seeing a lot of strong applications for new charters. Conclusion: a tough job--building good schools for disadvantaged kids from scratch--is about to get tougher.