Finding adequate facilities continues to be a struggle for the nation's charter schools, a new report says.
Only 26 percent of charter schools receive funding specifically targeted toward facilities, according to the Center for Education Reform's Annual Survey of America's Charter Schools, released in January 2010.
Of the 980 charters that responded to the survey, 62 percent said they rented their school buildings, and 33 percent own their facilities. Among the renters, 34 percent report that they have annual or short-term leases.
"This means that charters have the additional burden of instability when they have to revisit their lease every few years," the report says. "These are not issues that plague other public schools, and operational issues relating to facilities are a big factor in the evidence on closed schools."