Batt Rings Bell For Charter Schools Parents, Teachers Would Have Say Over Bureaucracy

Maintaining that the time for talk has passed, Gov. Phil Batt on Thursday endorsed creation of chartered public schools on a limited basis to see if they really can improve education.

“For years, we have all heard debate over whether charter schools are good or bad, an add-on to the present school system or a threat to it, a haven for the wealthy and motivated or a new alternative for anyone interested in attending,” the governor told Idaho’s school superintendents at their annual summer meeting.

“We have reached the stage where our questions will only be answered if we give charter schools a try,” Batt said.

A special legislative committee will hold a public meeting in North Idaho in early September to gather comments and ideas on charter schools, said Sen. Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d’Alene, a member of the committee.

The special House-Senate committee dealing with charter public schools is circulating a draft allowing creation of 10 charter schools during each of the first two years after passage and no limit on the number after that.

After years of disagreement that doomed charter school legislation, it appeared enactment was in sight.

“The debate is not whether we will have charter schools,” Senate Education Chairman Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, said. “It is what type of schools we have to have.”

Some 700 charter schools will be operating this fall in 29 states. They are designed to be run by parents and teachers - free of state school regulations - to promote innovation in education.

Existing public school employees would have to win local school board approval to set up a charter school in the district, and private schools could apply to either a local school board or state schools Superintendent Anne Fox to become charter schools. Denials could be appealed to the state Board of Education.

Riggs said the committee isn’t planning on making the charter schools completely free of state oversight.

“My impression right now is the standards would be at least what they are in the public schools or higher,” Riggs said.

Among some requirements that the committee is mulling are open-enrollment and a prohibition on religion-based curriculum.

The latter requirement likely will keep many private schools from trying to become charter schools, Riggs said.

No new source of funding is under consideration to pay for charter schools. The idea is that the per-student amount of funding that the state now distributes to school districts would follow the student to the charter school.

Don Morgan, a former Post Falls school board candidate who campaigned for charter schools there, called the legislation “a step forward.”

“If this helps improve the public system, I’m all for it,” he said.

Morgan said he’d prefer to see the state pursue tax credits for parents who send their students to private schools.

At Thursday’s meeting, the governor also expressed optimism that for the first fall since he has been in office he will not have to impose an across-the-board budget cut to keep the state in the black.

Budget-balancing spending cuts the past two years have fallen hardest on public schools because state aid to education accounts for nearly half of all general tax spending. The schools eventually got their cash, or most of it, from other sources but not until the bulk of the school years were over.

“This year I will probably not have to impose a holdback,” Batt said. “I insert the word ‘probably’ because we’re only a few weeks into the fiscal year, and that’s not long. But it’s looking pretty good.”

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = From staff and wire reports Staff writer Susan Drumheller contributed to this report.