The Tennessee state House will consider creating an entirely new panel for authorizing charter schools at the state level. It’s part of a compromise set to be heard in an education committee today.
The original bill is a direct response to the repeated rejection of Great Hearts Academies by Metro Schools last year. It gives the state board of education power to OK charter schools and oversee them.
But the state board has concerns about possibly taking on the job of managing privately-run, publicly financed schools. Rep. Mark White said he now hopes to create a completely separate board appointed by the governor and speakers of the House and Senate.
“Now with this panel, this will be something that shows we’re serious about this,” White said. “We want good charter applications to come to this state, but we’re going to do it right.”
White is also proposing a change to allow charter applicants in any part of the state to be authorized by this new panel. The legislation as currently written only affects Nashville and Memphis. He acknowledges that shifting to a statewide charter authorizer may be less palatable to many Republican lawmakers.
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