California Charter Schools Association
As the membership and professional organization serving public charter schools in California, the California Charter Schools Association works to increase student achievement by supporting and expanding California's quality public charter school movement.
The Association has leveraged the Foundation's investments to build a continuum of school development and support programs. Beginning with its High Quality Charter Grant Program, these initiatives help school leadership teams from the beginning of the school-creation process through charter renewal. With support from the Foundation, more than 200 new, high-quality public charter schools have opened in California since 2004.
More than 200 new, high-quality charter public schools have opened in California since 2004, thanks in part to the Association’s leadership.
As a result of the Foundation's early operational support, the Association has significantly increased earned revenue and become more self-sufficient. When it was established in October 2003, the Association developed a five-year strategic plan that called for creating services and products that would both enable charter schools to operate more efficiently and also generate revenue to support the Association's ongoing operations. Three-and-a-half years later, these services and products generate more than $3.5 million in operating revenue per year, an amount that should continue to grow as public charter schools gain market share and the Associations creates new offerings.
In order to protect and advocate for the rights of public charter schools and the students they serve, the Foundation helped the Association create a Charter School Legal Defense Fund. The Fund is designed to help ensure that all California public charter school students have equal access to the programs, facilities, and resources they need to obtain a high-quality public education. As a result of the Fund’s work in the San Diego Unified School District, the District made facilities offers to almost 90% of its charter schools, up from about half in the previous year.
