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Ohio budget update
The Ohio House passed a substitute version of HB 96—the next biennial state budget—by a vote of 60 to 39 earlier this week. There isn’t much discussion of its impacts to charter schools in the media yet, so we urge readers to check out this earlier analysis from Fordham’s Aaron Churchill. There will surely be more detailed coverage to come as the Senate takes up the measure starting next week.
Meanwhile, in Indiana…
Indiana’s Senate Bill 1 passed the House this week, after being amended to include language from another bill, which would, among other things, share local school district tax revenue with charter schools located within that district’s borders. All the media coverage is negative, including this piece, focusing on how much money districts stand to lose (from what they “should get”) but saying nothing about how much charter schools stand to gain (based on their burgeoning student populations). SB 1 heads to the Senate and Governor Mike Braun urged them to pass it on to him for signature soon…although it should be pointed out that revenue-sharing won’t begin until at least 2028 even if the bill passes this session.
…and in Texas…
Two different Texas bills demand our attention this week. First up is House Bill 2, which would, among other things, provide a facilities funding boost to charter schools across the board. That one was voted out of the House Public Education Committee by a vote of 13-2. The other is Senate Bill 1750, also a facilities funding plan, which would allow per-student funding for open-enrollment charter schools’ instructional facilities, although with a lot of guardrails to prevent fraud and abuse. That one passed out of the Senate Education K-16 Committee by a vote of 7-0-1. More news on both soon.
News from the ballot box
Two weeks ago in these clips, we discussed the fact that Kansas City Public Schools in Missouri had not successfully passed a bond issue in nearly 60 years. Leaders were pinning their hopes for the latest effort on partnering with certain local charter schools and promising to share the revenue generated. Lo and behold, that was a winning strategy—the issue passed on April 8 with nearly 85 percent of the vote. According to a pre-election analysis, nine partner charter schools in the city stand to receive $50 million in facilities-improvement funding.
Preparing for court
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond case on April 30 and the outcome could have wide repercussions. As former NAPCS boss Nina Rees explained it in EdNext this week, the issue is not whether “public schools can proselytize,” as many have opined. But rather whether the court will deem charter schools to be “state actors” for purposes of applying the federal Constitution in the Oklahoma case. “To rule in St. Isidore’s favor,” Rees says, “the court would need to redefine charter schools as private schools.” And such a ruling would, she argues, “permanently impact charter school laws” in all 46 states that have enacted them. Potential consequences include loss of (or at least new restrictions around) federal and state funding streams charters currently qualify for, and new ammunition for opponents to cast charter schools as more akin to private schools than to traditional public district schools. Rees doesn’t predict an outcome one way or another, but does note that a tie decision (one justice has recused herself, leaving only 8 to hear the case), would allow the lower court’s previous ruling against St. Isidore to stand.
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