Nearly 30 years since their inception in the United States, charter schools are now a well-established educational option for parents and students. Although they are an important education provider schooling more than 3.1 million students nationwide, we know little about their ability to accumulate fiscal savings for weathering rainy days and sustaining smooth service. Unlike most other fiscal savings studies focusing on the unrestricted fund balance, we examine both restricted and unrestricted fund balances across Pennsylvania charter schools, this study’s unit of analysis. Using a Newey-West regression and data spanning the years 2011–2019, we show that charter schools consider all fund balance classifications when making savings decisions; albeit the unrestricted was their primary savings vehicle. Given their limited revenue portfolio, they are left with only a few options for accumulating fiscal savings. Surplus from tuition payments and additional revenues from private funding sources appear as main fund balance boosters. Surprisingly, special education enrollment significantly increases the unrestricted fund balance, a finding that requires further attention from legislators and policy makers. Concerns are also raised about participation in the state pension system as it absorbs a significant amount of slack that otherwise could be used for other purposes. Overall, most charter schools retain inadequate fiscal savings not capable of insulating their operation from revenue volatility and other contingencies. Statutory fund balance minimums and the adoption of formal fund balance policies articulating how savings are accumulated, used, and replenished should, therefore, be considered.

自从在美国成立特许学校以来，已有近30年的历史，特许学校现已成为父母和学生公认的教育选择。尽管他们是重要的教育提供者，在全国范围内为310万学生提供教育，但我们对他们在下雨天和保持平稳服务方面积累财政储蓄的能力知之甚少。与大多数其他针对非限制性资金余额的财政储蓄研究不同，我们研究了宾夕法尼亚州特许学校中的限制性和非限制性资金余额，这是该研究的分析单位。使用Newey-West回归和2011-2019年的数据，我们表明，特许学校在制定储蓄决策时会考虑所有基金余额分类；尽管不受限制的是他们的主要储蓄工具。鉴于他们的收入组合有限，他们只剩下几个积累财政储蓄的选择。学费支付的盈余和私人资金来源的额外收入似乎是主要的资金平衡助推器。令人惊讶的是，特殊教育的入学人数大大增加了不受限制的资金余额，这一发现需要立法者和政策制定者的进一步关注。人们还担心加入国家养老金系统，因为它吸收了大量的闲置资金，否则这些闲置资金可用于其他目的。总体而言，大多数特许学校保留的财政节余不足，无法使其运营免受收入波动和其他突发事件的影响。因此，法定的最低资金结余和采用正式的资金结余政策应阐明储蓄的积累，使用和补充方式，