Charter school legislation is this year’s hot potato

Editorials

January 24, 2013

Charter school legislation is this year’s hot potato

By The Commercial Dispatch, Columbus, Miss. Associated Press Thu Jan 24, 2013, 08:00 AM CST

COLUMBUS, Miss. — The hot potato that is charter school legislation is now in the hands of the Mississippi House of Representatives.

The Mississippi Senate passed its version of charter school legislation in a vote that went along party lines, for the most part. The 31-17 vote had the unanimous support of Senate Republicans, with only a couple of Democrats voting with the majority.

The House’s version of charter school legislation will likely be less sweeping and more contested.

Rep. Gary Chism, R-Columbus, said the House bill, which has yet to go to committee, will likely allow only 15 charter schools to open each year. Chism said charter schools will only be allowed to open in districts that have “D” and “F” districts until 2016. ...

Allowing charter schools in only under-performing districts has met opposition from Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves who has openly thrown his support behind charter schools expansion. ...

Chism said the House bill also allocates charter schools to be a racial representation of the district in which it is established, as well as requiring at least 50 percent of its staff be certified teachers. ...

In 2012, the House charter schools bill died in committee. But Chism said Speaker of the House Philip Gunn’s decision to remove state Rep. Linda Wittington, D-Schlater, from the education committee in November could be the key to the bill making it onto the floor. ...

Should the House pass its bill, it will still meet opposition from the Senate, including Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, who opposed the bill on the Senate floor. ...

Bryan said the charter-school movement will only put the state’s public schools in a bigger financial hole. ...

Chism said he is optimistic a compromise will be made and the state will have charter school legislation if his fellow Republicans are willing to cooperate.

“The Senate bill passed by a wide margin,” Chism said. “If it gets through the House, it will be by a narrow margin. The Senators will see we can only tweak the bill a little bit. I think they will look a lot closer at the House bill if they want to have a bill at all.”

Online:

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