In 1991, Minnesota passed the first charter school statute in the nation and started the first charter schools in 1992. In 1996, the Minnesota Legislature appropriated funds for a charter school lease aid grant program.
Lease aid grant statute
Minnesota law (Statute 124D.11, subdivision 4) allows charter schools to apply to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) for building lease aid when a charter school has insufficient total operating capital revenue (as defined under section 126C.10, subdivision 13). The MDE must review and either approve or deny a lease aid application using the following criteria:
The State distributes these lease aid funds on a per-pupil basis. The amount of funds per- pupil unit served for a charter school for any year may not exceed the lesser of
The requirement that charter schools pay at least 10 percent of their facility costs helps ensure that schools will lease appropriate and reasonable facilities. The building lease aid may not be used for custodial, maintenance service, utility, or other operating costs. Charter schools make up the difference between state aid and actual rent by spending general aid funds.
Application process
The process for obtaining facility aid includes the following steps:
State funding and Federal grant
For fiscal year 2004, $17,768,623 was appropriated in state lease aid funding and the total facilities lease aid appropriation for fiscal year 2005 is $22,236,119.
Minnesota is one of four grant recipients under the State Charter School Facilities Incentive Grants Program. Minnesota will use its Federal grant to enhance its charter school facility initiative by making building improvement grants, augmenting state appropriations for lease aid, providing technical assistance in selecting appropriate charter school facilities and disseminating information about best use of facilities.
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