North Carolina Senator Doug Berger and fellow senators W. Edward (Eddie) Goodall of Mecklenburg and Union Counties and Larry Shaw of Cumberland County are sponsoring two bills concerning charter schools.
Goodall, a conservative Republican, lends bipartisan support to the two pieces of legislation through his sponsorship.
The first bill, short-titled Capital Funds for Certain Charter Schools, calculates how much money each county receives according to a formula based on its tax rate, average daily membership in the schools, and local tax levies for the benefit of the schools.
The bill allows charter schools to receive money for capital building projects as long as 30% of their students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.
No county or charter school will have to provide matching funds. The money can be also be used to pay off debts incurred for school construction on or after January 1, 2003.
Fund monies may not be used for school technology needs.
It is not clear if the Vance Charter School would be able to draw money for building capital expenditures were the legislation to pass and become effective on July 1, 2007. The school’s North Carolina Report Card does not ennumerate any economically disadvantaged students during last year’s testing.
Free or reduced-price lunch is the typical measure of this category.
The bill, if passed, could have implications for Vance County Schools’ quest to build a new middle school and elementary school.
The second bill, sponsored by Berger, Goodall, and Shaw, short-titled Raise Cap on Number of Charter Schools allows the State Board of Education to authorize no more than 100 charter schools statewide, with no more than five per local school administrative unit.
The bill also empowers the State Board authorize an additional 25 charter schools if at least 30% of the students at those schools qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
The prospective legislation allows authorization to be granted before space, equipment, facilities, and personnel have been obtained, if the authorization is deemed necessary to to raise working capital, but does not allow funds to be allocated until the school has obtained space.
The State Board is empowered to grant charters not longer than ten years, and must review the operation of each charter school every five years to ensure that each school is meeting expected academic, financial, and goverance standards.
The law provides for 10% student body growth per year and defines the circumstances under which a charter school may request to raise enrollment by a greater percentage.
Charter schools, while heralded as a success story by many for achieving results in test scores and behavior, have also been criticized for bleeding off resources and more motivated students from the traditional public school system because of their ability to disregard regulations to which traditional public schools must adhere.