Charter school building-subsidy bill pulled from House

After House debate turned sharply against the bill, Rep. Reed DeMordaunt, R-Eagle, today pulled HB 663 from the House floor, asking that it be sent back to the House Education Committee. The bill would allow charter schools to tap into a subsidy program that now matches part of bond interest for school districts whose voters pass building bonds by a two-thirds margin; the charter schools would just need a vote of their board for their debt to qualify for the match. House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, told the House, “This bill will dilute the limited amount of support we have for public school facilities.” DeMordaunt asked to return the bill to committee, saying, “I think good colleagues have pointed out some issues we may need to work on a bit more on this.”