Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that authorizes the formation of charter schools.

Highlights:

• Authorizes a “persistently low-achieving school,” which is a school that has fallen below target graduation rates or has been in the lowest 5% of all schools that failed to meet target achievement standards for 3 or more consecutive years, to be converted into a “charter school” (Secs. 1 & 8).

• Defines “charter school” as a nonsectarian, nonreligious, non-home-based, tuition-free public school that operates within and is accountable to a local school district (Secs. 2 & 3).

• Requires the following actions in order to convert a persistently low-achieving school into a charter school (Sec. 1):
• A petition to vote signed by at least 20 percent of the school’s certified personnel, and at a least two-thirds majority of the school’s certified personnel in the subsequent vote; or
• A petition to vote signed by at least 20 percent of the school’s parents, guardians, and legal custodians of enrolled students, and at a least two-thirds majority of the school’s parents, guardians, and legal custodians of enrolled students in the subsequent vote.

• Authorizes a new charter school to be approved for 3 to 5 years, and a renewal of the school to be approved for up to 5 years (Sec. 4).

• Requires a charter school to operate under certain standards, including, but not limited to, the following (Sec. 1):
• The school will focus on closing achievement gaps among students;
• The school will increase student learning through the implementation of “rigorous” performance standards; and
• The school will expand the types of educational opportunities available to students.

• Authorizes the local school board to revoke or not renew a charter if it is determined that the charter school has committed certain actions, including, but not limited to, the following (Sec. 4):
• The school failed to meet or make reasonable progress towards achievement of content or student performance standards identified in the charter contract; 
• The school failed to meet generally accepted standards of fiscal management; or
• The school committed a material violation of any conditions in the charter contract.

• Requires the superintendent to notify the parents of children enrolled at a school designated as a persistently low-achieving school upon its designation and the intervention options available (Sec. 8).

• Expands the intervention options available to a persistently low-achieving school to include the conversion into a charter school (Sec. 8).

• Requires a persistently low-achieving school that after 3 years has failed to meet state achievement targets under the restaffing or transformation intervention option to engage in the external management option, the charter school option, or the school closure option (Sec. 8).

Full Bill Text