One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
More Than Half Of LAUSD’s Charter Schools Received Paycheck Protection Program Loans
Parents at Arminta Street Elementary in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Sun Valley protest the proposed co-location of a charter school on their campus on March 1, 2017. (Kyle Stokes/LAist)
We’ve long known that Los Angeles charter schools were taking out loans through a now-$659 billion federal program aimed at helping small businesses stay afloat.
That struck teachers unions and other charter critics as odd because public school funding has continued to flow during the coronavirus pandemic.
But we haven’t had a good idea how common it is for charter schools — publicly-funded, tuition-free schools — in the L.A. Unified School District to receive loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP.
At least, not until now. We dug through federal data and board documents and found PPP loans to charter schools are common:
- So far, lenders have granted PPP loans to 50 different organizations that run charter schools in the L.A. Unified School District.
- These 50 loan recipients collectively run more than half of the 224 charter schools in LAUSD.
- In LAUSD, charter schools’ PPP loans total at least $73.6 million, but because the Small Business Administration doesn’t publish precise loan amounts, the total could be as high as $136.7 million.
- In LAUSD, most PPP loans to charter schools are small enough that they’ll have less federal oversight — because they’re for less than $2 million.
READ THE FULL STORY:
WE ARE HERE TO HELP: HOW TO (NEW) LA
- What's Open And What Are The Rules?
- Is It Safe Out There?
- What To Do If You Have It, Might Have It, Or Were Possibly Exposed To The Coronavirus
- An FBI Hostage Negotiator Tells Us How To Talk To People About Masks
- Need Some Mental Health Support? Start Here
- The 5 Most Important Things To Know About The Outside World
Our news is free on LAist. To make sure you get our coverage: Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter. To support our nonprofit public service journalism: Donate now.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
