Charter school bills advance

Both education committees in the Legislature passed bills that would allow students to attend charter schools located in districts outside their own.

As the law stands now, students must live in the school district where the charter school is created in order to attend. Jackson currently has the only two of these schools in the state — ReImagine Prep and Midtown Public Charter School. Both have plans to expand to serve more grades in upcoming years.

Senate Bill 2161 would not only allow students to go outside of their own district to a charter school — and their state money follow them — but would also remove the requirement that C-rated school districts obtain school board approval before a charter school is allowed to open. Charter schools are currently only allowed to open in D- and F-rated school districts without board approval.

The liveliest discussion of expanding the 2013 law came in the House committee, where mostly Democratic representatives questioned whether allowing high-performing students to leave struggling school districts to attend charter schools would negatively impact those school districts.

“So you can pull the best of the best from their schools and put them into a charter school that’s in a D or F — that physically sits in a D or F school — with this bill?” Rep. Sonya Williams-Barnes, D-Gulfport asked.

Rep. Charles Busby, R-Pascagoula, the author of House Bill 1044, took issue with the phrasing “best of the best.”

“I don’t know if you would say pull the best of the best, but if we thought the best of the best got a better educational opportunity by attending a charter school in another district — if that’s what you want to call ‘pulling the best of the best’ because we’re giving them that opportunity, then yes, by all means, that’s what we’re doing,” Busby said.

Busby also said the intention of the bill is to help smaller, failing school districts in the Delta since charter school groups are less likely to open schools with a smaller pool of students.

Rep. Brad Touchstone, R-Hattiesburg, asked whether there was anything in the bill to prevent charter school organizations from "shopping around" and courting students who may receive a larger amount of state funding. Busby said there was not.

Rep. Jarvis Dortch, D-Raymond, offered an amendment to allow charter schools to open without school board approval in all districts, even those rated A and B. He made the amendment, which Busby and other Republicans supported, right before the full committee vote.

“If they want Madison County students, they should go to Madison County and open up a school,” Dortch said.

Busby later told the Associated Press that Dortch's amendment was invalid because House Bill 1044 lacks the appropriate sections of state law.

Both the House and Senate bills would also allow teachers at charter schools up to three years after being hired to obtain certification.

Busby explained that this was to allow people in other professions — for example, a retired pharmacist who wants to teach high school chemistry — to teach in these schools while working toward their certification.

Several lawmakers questioned whether public school teachers are afforded the same opportunity to obtain certification. State Superintendent Carey Wright told both committees that teachers without a traditional education degree can pursue an alternative route program.

School districts may also apply for expert citizen’s licenses, or one-year licenses issued by the Mississippi Department of Education to people with certain business and professional experience.

Contact Kate Royals at (601) 360-4619 or kroyals@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @KRRoyals on Twitter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.