Charter schools bill hanging on

The seeds for a charter schools compromise were planted in the waning hours of this Education Committee's first legislative session on Thursday.

The potential compromise emerged a day after the same committee narrowly defeated a bill that would permit charter schools in Maine, one of 10 states that do not allow the independently run, public schools.

Charter schools proponent Rep. Alan Casavant, D-Biddeford, offered a few proposals to, in essence, dilute Sen. Dennis Damon's charter schools bill while, perhaps, making it more palatable to those who voted against it.

Casavant's suggestions included the following amendments:

• Require that charter schools have 75 percent of their teachers certified, rather than the 50 percent detailed in Damon's bill.
• Further limit the percentage of a local school district's students charter schools can enroll. The original bill sets that limit at 10 percent.
• Allow fewer charter schools during a 10-year pilot program the bill sets out for the schools. Local school boards could authorize 10 charter schools and other entities could authorize 10 more. Damon's bill set no limit on the number of charter schools school boards could authorize during the pilot period while it limited the other entities -- universities with education programs -- to 20 schools.
• Deny charter school operators the ability to appeal the decision of an authorizer to end a charter.

The amendments directly address charter school opponents' concerns that the schools would siphon students and resources away from local school districts struggling to make ends meet. The teacher certification threshold was another concern, though less prominent than the financial questions.

While it's too late for the Education Committee to revisit its vote, the Casavant amendments will likely become part of the full Legislature's debate on the Damon bill.

Whether the Biddeford Democrat's proposals have a major impact on legislative debate remains to be seen.

Steve Bowen of the Maine Heritage Policy Center says the prospects for passage of the charter school legislation are dim. By his calculations, 19 of 20 Senate Democrats and five of 15 Republicans in the chamber are likely to oppose the measure, based on those same legislators' 2006 votes on a similar bill.

But, as Education Commissioner Susan Gendron has noted, this year's charter school measure has more momentum than past ones. A push for charter schools by Democratic President Barack Obama, the potential for a federal funds infusion by allowing them and Casavant's amendments will likely sustain that momentum.

We'll see if it's enough.