OKLAHOMA CITY — Lawmakers and education interests have reached an agreement on major charter school legislation, the second-ranking member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives said Monday.
House Speaker Pro Tem Lee Denney, R-Cushing, said she “almost couldn’t contain myself” as she presented the new language for Senate Bill 782, by Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, to the House Common Education Committee.
“This has been a work in progress for so long,” she said.
Denney said the final language was agreed to by organizations representing school administrators, school boards, charter advocates and suburban districts, as well as the Oklahoma City and Tulsa chambers of commerce.
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Proponents of charter schools believe that they give parents more choices for their children and encourage innovation. Skeptics fear that they are a Trojan horse attack on public education that will spread already thin financial resources even thinner.
SB 782 would remove the restriction limiting charter schools to Tulsa and Oklahoma counties while putting into statute greater detail on the application and renewal process.
Perhaps most controversially, it would allow the State Board of Education to overrule local boards that reject charter applications and to close low-performing charters that local boards refuse to shutter.
Denney, in her remarks to the committee, said the state board could authorize charters against the wishes of a local school board only five times per year and could not authorize more than one per district per year. She directed the committee members to a section of the proposed law that says the state board could act only in the case of a “high-quality” applicant with “a clear demonstration of community support.”
The bill includes several oversight provisions, including requirements that charter schools “be subject to the same academic standards and expectations” as traditional public schools and that they be subject to the state Open Meeting and Open Records laws.
It also would require that charter schools be open to all students on the same basis as public schools and that lotteries be used when applications outnumber capacity. Each school’s lottery procedure would have to be made part of its charter application.
Each charter would be for five years, with schools required to demonstrate success for renewal.
SB 782 passed the Common Education committee 12-2, with Democrats Jeannie McDaniel of Tulsa and Donnie Condit of McAlester in opposition. It now goes to the full House.
