Charter School Feasibility Study in Florida

Florida school loans are large and 504-heavy

The SBA's records for Florida schools show a larger loan than the class carries elsewhere. The median Florida loan to an elementary or secondary school was $976,600, 1.43x the class median nationwide; that size separates Florida, by more than our distinctness margin, from Florida's lending in every class and from schools nationally. Florida ranks 3 of 50 states for these loans, with 107 approvals worth $136.3 million from FY2017 to FY2026, while a Florida location quotient of 1.60x shows schools take a clearly larger share of Florida's SBA lending than they do nationwide, even though the class sits 20 of 39 inside the state. Florida's middle half of school loans runs from $355,500 to $1.8 million, the territory of buying or building a school campus.

The program mix confirms it. SBA 504 carried 43 of the Florida approvals and SBA 7(a) 64, a high 504 share that reflects schools buying real estate. Florida Business Development Corporation, as current holder, carries 23 school loans worth $30.6 million; next comes Florida First Capital Finance Corporation, Inc., carrying 15 Florida school loans worth $16.7 million, and Sunshine State Economic Development Corporation has 5. On the 7(a) side, SouthState Bank, National Association holds 5 worth $4.0 million. Franchised schools account for 10.3%. Miami-Dade County leads with 24 approvals, then Hillsborough with 15 and Orange and Palm Beach with 9 each. Recent years have been the most active, with $18.5 million in FY2024 and $17.6 million in FY2025.

Outcomes for Florida school loans

Of the school loans Florida approved in FY2017 through FY2024, at least 6.1% were later cancelled, and up to 9.8% if every loan still waiting on funds is added, so a borrower should expect real work between approval and closing on a property deal. Not one of the 47 Florida school loans disbursed during FY2017 to FY2021 has been written off; the record reads 0.00% overall and 0.00% inside five years. That is a floor on a young group of loans, not a guarantee.

Questions a Florida school study must settle

A Florida school study has to start with enrolment demand: the school-age population within a realistic commute, the competing public, charter and private seats, and the school's own waiting list or reenrolment history. Cost testing covers the purchase or construction of classrooms, life-safety work and the furnishing of a campus. Debt service coverage depends on tuition or per-pupil revenue at a conservative enrolment, with a ramp for a new campus. The appraisal is the hard part, because a school building is special-purpose property and a lender near $1.8 million needs a value that holds if the school leaves.

These figures have a structural limit. In these Florida numbers a charter school is indistinguishable from a private school, since both use one industry code. Most charter operators are nonprofits, and SBA does not lend to nonprofits, so the Florida loans here mainly finance private, for-profit schools and the for-profit side of the charter sector.