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West Virginia Senate Panel Advances Charter School Bill With Democratic Amendment

West Virgnia Sen. Mike Romano, D-Harrison, explains his amendment to a bill expanding the public charter school pilot program to slow down how quickly the program would ramp up in the state. Photo Courtesy of W.Va. Legislative Photography

CHARLESTON — A public charter school expansion bill from the House of Delegates was approved Tuesday by the Senate Education Committee after accepting an amendment from a Democratic senator to slow down how quickly the program ramps up.

House Bill 2012 was adopted by the committee on a voice vote Tuesday evening. The bill now heads to the full Senate.

HB 2012 changes the maximum number of public charter schools in a three-year period from three to 10. The bill also allows for a statewide virtual charter school and allows counties to approve smaller virtual charter schools.

The committee approved in a 7-6 vote an amendment offered by Sen. Mike Romano, D-Harrison. The Romano amendment would keep the cap on the number of charter schools for the first three-year period ending July 1, 2023, to three public charter schools. For the next two three-year periods, the cap would go up to 10 public charter schools.

The Romano amendment also capped the number of students who could participate in the statewide virtual public charter school to 1,500 for the first three years of the program, increasing to no more than 5 percent of statewide total student public school enrollment after the first three years. Under the current bill, statewide virtual public charter school enrollment is limited to 10 percent of total statewide student enrollment.

“I just think we’re taking a big step here,” Romano said. “You guys want these charter schools. You want virtual charter schools. I understand you’re going to get what you want. Let’s just be a little bit circumspect.

“Let’s see if they’re successful,” he continued. “Let’s see if they work in West Virginia before we open them up and potentially take 12,000 students out of the public school system in a statewide virtual program.”

Senate Education Committee Vice Chairman Robert Karnes, R-Randolph, opposed the Romano amendment. Karnes said limiting the number of charters for the first three-year period could reduce the amount of federal funding the state could receive. The federal Charter Schools Program provides financial assistance to states for the planning, program design and initial implementation of charter schools.

Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, said the purpose of expanding the public charter school pilot project with HB 2012 was to gain eligibility for CSP funding. Rucker said the state’s limited pilot program makes it ineligible for those dollars.

Since the program was created in the 2019 through House Bill 2006, no charter schools have been approved by county boards of education. An attempt by a group to create a public charter school serving the Monongalia and Preston County area was rejected by both county boards of education last year. The group filed suit against the two school boards in the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals earlier this month.

If the full state Senate approves of HB 2012, it would still need to return to the House of Delegates to approve the changes made to the bill by the Senate.

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