Charter School Capital is the first national services provider exclusively focused on charter schools and the students they serve. Since our founding in 2007, we have invested more than $2.3 billion in charter schools, serving over 1,500,000 students in more than 800 schools across the country.
The growth of Charter School Capital has mirrored a market that was untapped when co-founder Stuart Ellis became aware of the funding challenges faced by charter schools. Ellis left his job as a bank consultant and shared his vision for solving these funding challenges with co-founder Brad Coburn, then a managing director at Countrywide Financial.
Together, the two created a solution for charter schools that was previously unavailable. Charter School Capital first focused on providing a reliable source of funding to charter schools in order to help them stabilize operations in the following areas; payroll, facilities enhancements, technology, books, ongoing operations.
In 2014, Charter School Capital expanded its capabilities to include facilities financing through the formation of American Education Properties, LLC (AEP). Unlike other facilities financing options, AEP financing was designed to allow a charter school to determine its own long-term facility needs with long-term access and full control of their buildings, under a charter-friendly landlord.
This approach represented a major improvement from the year-to-year lease renewals typically faced by charter schools. To date, American Education Properties has purchased 42 charter school facilities around the country.
In 2018, Charter School Capital began offering additional services to charter schools, including enrollment marketing, Medicaid® reimbursement and green energy services through Charter School Energy, powered by BioStar Renewables.
As the charter school market continues to grow, our goal is to help charter school leaders access, leverage and sustain the resources they need to thrive, freeing them up to do what they do best – educate students.