Charter Enrollment = $$$$ for For-Profits

From a posting at Seeking Alpha: Stock Market News, Opinion & Analysis, Investing Ideas, discussing the financial prospects of Entertainment Properties Trust (they do business - lucrative business - with the Imagine Schools folks):

There is also news this quarter about our Public Charter School portfolio. The third calendar quarter is when we get our first enrollment counts for our Public Charter Schools. This of course substantially determines their reimbursement revenue for the school year.

Our aggregate enrollments were right on top of where they were last year, about 12,700 students representing 86% occupancy this year compares with 12,900 students, 87% occupancy for last year. This level of performance correlates with about a 1.8 times coverage of the rent obligation, a level with which we are comfortable and is consistent with our underwriting.

...

With regard to our Charter Public School investment, we now have our 2009/2010 enrollment certifications and we’re happy to report that our portfolio stands at 86% occupancy and should generate a strong 1.8 rent coverage.

Our total numbers reflect a reduction of approximately 200 students across the entire portfolio of schools. This reduction however, can generally be identified as a few schools in which the local economy has experienced a severe downturn which has caused significant family disruptions and relocations. Specifically, we’ve seen this scenario being played out in our Las Vegas school.

It is important to remember however, that our school portfolio is structured as a mass release for all 22 locations and as I stated earlier, on an overall basis, the portfolio is demonstrating strong rent coverage.