But you don't need to build equity. If you have a charter with 200 children and you have got $400,000 a year guaranteed to come in, what is preventing a bank or an entity from loaning you money to buy or lease or renovate a building?

I will tell you from my political experience with the majority of independent, non-parochial public schools, the average of tuitions is about $15,000 to $20,000.

To follow up on the facilities, do we have a comprehensive list of school buildings...

Well, let me just suggest from this moment forward I would go on record as saying no group should receive a charter to start a school unless everybody associated with that charter has had a full FBI background check.

We need to create venture capital funding.

I mean, you can either pay for it up front, residential in school, or you can pay $50,000 a year for residence in prison.

I would like to receive some testimony from some of the bankers, not at this meeting, Mr. Chairman, but perhaps in writing.

Thank you all. As I said as you all sat down, I again just congratulate you for your really extraordinary, extraordinary efforts.

And a mere $4.5 million or even 6 or 7 million dollars won't do. Sometimes, it is a $20 million price tag, or sometimes more than that?

What we need to be able to do is we don't have the money to get audits.

During this time, we, as a Nation, take the time to reflect on and celebrate one of the fastest growing innovative forces in education policy, the charter school.

I give support to Thurgood Marshall and SEED, and so does the chairman, and attention and support to Mr. Domenici's school because what you are doing is pretty terrific and it is working and it is showing us the way.

We are vigorously pursuing this incubator concept and we want to work with the mayor's office, which has given tremendous leadership.

Today, I am pleased, Mr. Chairman, that you have agreed to hold this hearing today on charter schools.

I appreciate those comments and, of course, acknowledge the work that we have done together along with many other members of both the House and the Senate to improve public school choices for residents in the District.

there is no reason that the banking community in the District of Columbia... can't establish a new and different way to lend money for the establishment of schools.

Does anybody have an idea--maybe, Ms. Baker, you could testify on this because it seems like we could--one of the great accomplishments of this hearing, Mr. Chairman, would be if we could explore with you all, the experts, a streamlined…

I listened to the full chairman of the Appropriations Committee and his cautioning all of us that we have no money whatsoever to deal with and even less than we probably think we do.