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A charter school reform bill was approved by the House Education Committee on Wednesday, putting this perennial issue back on the table for lawmakers to tackle.
(File photo/PennLive.com)
Once again, state lawmakers are trying to tackle reforms to the 20-year-old charter school law that opened the door to public school choice in Pennsylvania.
This law, which led to the creation of 162 brick and mortar charter schools and 14 cyber charter schools, has proven to be controversial from the outset. Time has not changed that, which is why legislative sessions come and go and reforms to this embattled law never reach the governor's desk.
On Tuesday, the House Education Committee revived the issue for the first time in the legislative session that began in January by approving a charter school reform bill. Among other changes, it would establish an advisory commission to examine and recommend a new way of funding these independent public schools that serve more than 134,000 students.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Reese, R-Westmoreland County, won committee approval by a 17-10 near-party line vote, although some of the affirmative votes came from Republican members who indicated their support was conditioned on more work being done to address concerns they hold.
Committee Chairman David Hickernell, R-Lancaster County, said before throwing his support behind the measure, "You can tell a lot about a bill about who's happy and who's not. Everybody's not happy and everybody's not totally opposed so that's usually when you have a pretty decent product here."
The goal of the legislation, Reese said, is to strengthen the law by which charter schools operate, create savings for school districts, and create a level playing field between traditional public schools and charter schools when it comes to ethics, accountability and transparency.
Along with establishing a funding commission, the bill would:
- Cut the per-student tuition rate that cyber charter schools can charge, saving districts about $27 million;
- Put limits on the amount of money charter schools can hold in reserve to between 12 and 16 percent of their total budgets depending on the size of their budget;
- Establish a standard application form that all charter applicants would use
- Extend the length of a good-performing charter to 10 years from the current five years.
- Establish an academic performance matrix and teacher evaluation system for charter schools;
- Give charter schools the right of first refusal for purchase of unused public school buildings, among other changes included in the 75-page bill.
Rep. Jim Roebuck of Philadelphia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said while the bill had many good provisions, it also includes ones that will increase the divide between the way charters and traditional public schools are treated.
"Unfortunately, charter schools are no longer viewed as models of innovation that will benefit all public schools but as another part of the school choice movement. If that is the case, charter schools should be held to the same standards of academic performance, academic and fiscal accountability and transparency, that school districts must uphold," he said.
Among examples of shortcomings that Roebuck sees in the bill are the percentage limits of how much charter schools can hold in reserve is higher than that of school districts; it doesn't address special education overpayments to charter schools; and it fails to ensure that teachers and principals are evaluated the same way as those in traditional public schools are.
House Democrats plan a news conference on Wednesday to unveil a package of charter school reform bills that they maintain would more fairly treating traditional and charter public schools and their students.
Reese's bill is drawing a shaky response from charter and traditional public school advocacy groups who like lawmakers on the education committee indicated, they see it as a work in progress.