Senate Approves Charter Schools Bill Schools Will Be Tax-Funded But With Few State Restrictions

The state Senate sent Gov. Phil Batt legislation Wednesday authorizing an experiment in charter public schools, shifting the long-running debate over whether they are a good idea to whether they will work.

“This type of public school is going to be focused on results,” said Republican Sen. Darrel Diede, the former school superintendent in Caldwell. “And the difference between this type of public school and other public schools is that charter schools are going to be allowed to fail.”

Democrat Marguerite McLaughlin of Orofino was the lone dissenter, complaining that the bill does nothing to improve education in today’s public school classrooms.

Batt has endorsed what amounts to an experiment with the concept. It allows up to 12 existing or newly created public schools a year to be turned into charter schools for each of the next five years. Only one charter per district is authorized.

As public schools, the charters will get state school aid and be required to use certified teachers, have open enrollment and meet special education requirements. But otherwise they will be free of most constraints on regular public schools. Advocates say that will foster new approaches to education.

In the past, the Senate and House have been deadlocked on the issue, each rejecting the other’s approach. But this year, a compromise was struck after statewide hearings on the issue last summer and fall.

However, McLaughlin warned that the charters essentially will privatize the education system.

“Every state that has tried this is facing problems,” she said. “There is very little supervision.”

Republican Sen. Jack Riggs of Coeur d’Alene admitted that there “are concerns. There are risks. But the benefits outweigh the risks.”

Among the possibilities backers of charters envision are:

A conservative, traditional school with uniforms, stressing the classics and Latin.

A curriculum that combines an Asian language, perhaps Japanese, with English in the first few grades with the goal of producing bilingual students.

A special focus on the arts and music.

Or even an alternative night school.