Panel Will Study Issue Of Charter Schools

The chairmen of the Legislature’s education committees will head an interim study committee looking at the possible creation of charter schools.

Rep. Fred Tilman, R-Boise, has been pushing charter schools in the House for years. Now that he is chairman of House Education, he’s in a better position to do it.

Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, opposed charter school legislation in the last session but agreed to let an interim committee study the issue. The concept has been around for several years, and Schroeder said that experience should make it easier to come up with legislation.

“We are in a better position to write a bill than the other states because it has been almost a decade that the charter school concept has been around,” Schroeder said.

Charter schools are designed to be run by parents and teachers free of public school rules and regulation. The intent is to foster innovation. A stumbling block has been funding.

Some bills have called for charter schools to receive the same per-student funding as public schools. Opponents, including Schroeder, argued that would drain money from a public school system that badly needs it.

Washington, D.C., and 25 states allow charter schools and enrollment in nearly 500 charter schools totaled more than 100,000 students through last November, according to The Center for Education Reform.

Schroeder said he hopes the committee develops legislation to keep charter schools inside the public school system, so they don’t siphon money off from the public schools. He mentioned the possibility of creating charter schools for students with special needs.

The committee includes representatives Wayne Meyer, R-Rathdrum; Lee Gagner, R-Idaho Falls and Pat Beiter, D-Boise. Other Senate members are Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d’Alene; Darrel Diede, R-Caldwell and Betsy Dunklin, D-Boise.