Around the U.S., many school districts face the same problem:

• Aging, overcrowded buildings

• Limited traditional funding

• Urgent timelines to modernize facilities

One response has been public-private partnerships (P3s)—long-term contracts where a private consortium designs, builds, finances and maintains public facilities, while the public entity pays for performance over time.

Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) in Maryland has become a nationally watched case study for using P3s to deliver modern K-12 schools faster—and now, for inviting local community investors to participate in the equity side of its Phase II program.

This page explains:

• What a P3 is in the school context

• How the PGCPS Blueprint Schools program works

• What the Community Equity Investment Program is and how it fits into the picture

What Is a P3 in Simple Terms?

A public-private partnership in infrastructure is typically:

A long-term contract where a public agency and a private consortium share responsibilities, risks, and rewards in delivering a public facility or service. The private side often finances, builds and maintains the asset, while the public side pays based on performance over time.

In a school P3, that usually means:

• The school district defines the educational requirements and performance standards.

• A private consortium (developer, builder, financiers, facility manager) designs, builds, finances, and maintains the schools for a set period (often ~30 years).

• The district makes availability payments—regular payments funded by state and local sources, conditional on the schools being available and maintained to agreed standards.

At the end of the contract, the schools typically remain publicly owned.

The PGCPS Blueprint Schools Program – An Overview:

PGCPS is one of the largest school districts in the U.S. and faced billions of dollars in deferred maintenance along with growing enrollment. To address aging and overcrowded schools more quickly, the district launched the Blueprint Schools Program, an “alternative construction financing” approach built around P3s and bundled school delivery.

Phase I

• 6 new schools (five middle schools and one K-8 academy)

• Delivered in roughly 2.5–3 years from financial close, significantly faster than traditional design–bid–build approaches.

• Implemented via a 30-year P3 contract with the Prince George’s County Education & Community Partners (PGCECP) consortium.

• Included long-term building maintenance obligations and ambitious local and minority business participation goals.

Phase II

• 8 additional schools across the county, replacing or consolidating older facilities.

• Approximately $800 million in total project value, delivered through another 30-year P3 with Progressive Education Partners (PEP).

Together, the phases are designed to move more than 16,000 students into modern, energy-efficient school buildings years earlier than conventional funding alone would allow, while embedding long-term maintenance responsibilities into the contract.

Where Does Investor Equity Come In?

In most P3s, funding comes from a mix of:

• Senior debt: Often bank loans or bonds.

• Equity: Capital put in by the private consortium’s sponsors, which earns returns over time through availability payments or other revenue streams.

PGCPS’s Blueprint Schools P3s follow this pattern: the private partners provide up-front capital and expertise, and PGCPS makes availability-based payments over the 30-year term, subject to performance.

Traditionally, only large infrastructure sponsors and institutional investors could buy into the equity side of these deals. The Community Equity Investment Program in Phase II is designed to change that for Prince George’s County residents and businesses.

The Community Equity Investment Program – What It Is:

For Blueprint Schools Phase II, the equity members of Progressive Education Partners (PEP) have launched a Community Equity Investment Program that allows local investors to participate in the equity funding of the P3 via a regulated crowdfunding platform (InfraShares).

• It is designed as a “first-of-its-kind” community equity crowdfunding initiative in the U.S. school P3 space.

• Residents and local businesses in Prince George’s County can invest modest amounts into a vehicle that holds a slice of the project’s equity.

• The program aims to provide:

  • High-quality, infrastructure-style investment exposure (linked to long-term availability payments)

  • Potentially inflation-protected cash flows tied to the underlying P3 structure

  • A way for community members to build wealth from critical public investments in their own neighborhoods.

PGCPS and county officials have highlighted the community equity program as another way for individuals and small businesses to participate in and benefit from the Blueprint Schools Phase II project, alongside broader community benefits like local hiring, minority business participation, mentorship programs, and improved school facilities.

Important: Exact terms—such as eligibility, minimum investment sizes, expected returns, risks, and liquidity—are defined in the specific offering documents of the community equity vehicle and the crowdfunding platform. Those documents, not this summary, control the actual investment.

How a Retail Investor Might Approach Opportunities Like This:

If you’re considering a community equity investment in a P3 school project (whether PGCPS or another district), you can combine the 10-Question Checklist from Page 2 with some P3-specific questions:

1. • Role of the community equity vehicle

   • What percentage of total equity does the community vehicle represent?

   • Where does this vehicle sit in the capital structure relative to other equity and debt?

    

2. Cash flow expectations

   • How are distributions expected to work (e.g., after debt service and operating costs, pro-rata to equity holders)?

   • Are there preferred returns or performance hurdles?

3. Risk-sharing and protections

   • How are construction, cost overrun, and performance risks allocated among the consortium, the community vehicle, and the public sector?

   • Are there any guarantees or support agreements from larger sponsors?

4. Liquidity and time horizon

   • Is there any way to sell or transfer the investment before the end of the P3 term?

   • What is the expected hold period for community investors?

5. Alignment with community goals

   • How does the investment relate to broader community benefits—better schools, local jobs, minority business participation, mentorships, and scholarships?

Risks to Keep in Mind

Even though the underlying P3 may be backed by long-term public payments, community equity investments are not risk-free:

• Construction and commissioning risk

• Cost overruns or delays that reduce returns

• Changes in law or regulation

• Operational under-performance leading to payment deductions

• Limited or no liquidity for community investors

• Platform, legal, and documentation risk in the crowdfunding structure itself

Investors should read all offering and risk disclosure documents carefully, understand that loss of some or all invested capital is possible, and consider seeking independent professional advice.

Why These Models Matter:

The PGCPS Blueprint Schools P3s—and especially the community equity initiative in Phase II—are important for two reasons:

1. Infrastructure delivery: They show how P3s can help districts deliver bundles of modern school buildings faster, with long-term maintenance built into the contract instead of being deferred.

2. Investment access: By letting local residents and businesses co-invest (at appropriate risk levels and within securities regulations), they create a blueprint for more inclusive infrastructure investing, where communities don’t just host projects—they can own a piece of them.

As more jurisdictions look to P3s and innovative financing to address infrastructure gaps, you can expect to see more experiments with community-level investment programs. Understanding how these structures work today will help you ask sharper questions—and decide if they belong in your own portfolio tomorrow.