The charter subcommittee of the House Education Committee will meet for a work session tomorrow at 10:00 AM in Room 207 of the Legislative Office Building.

The Education Committee has retained 3 charter policy bills introduced this session:

HB 435 increases per student funding each charter school would get.  Currently, charters get $5,450/student.  This bill would further increase that per student funding and tie it to the statewide average cost of educating a student, so charter funding per student would increase (or decrease) each year with the total cost of education in New Hampshire.

HB 424 says that the State  Board of Education must identify all of the problems it sees with a charter application at one time.  The bill also makes other changes which appear to reduce the Board’s discretion in approving applications.

HB 243 requires a charter public school applicant to include information relating to the board of trustees in its application.  This bill requires additional useful information on the charter school application and does not present policy issues.

In recent weeks, the subcommittee has visited a number of charter schools and is likely to discuss their observations at this meeting.

A proposed joint committee to review charter school funding has not been retained in HB 2, so this subcommittee and the full Education Committee will be the primary venue for reviewing key charter school policy questions this year.