Charter school bills are moving again, at least in the Florida House. The bills are all beginning to look more alike. The charter school amendment to HB 1145, filed this week, dropped the requirement for districts to share public school capital outlay millage with charters. This is good news for financially strapped public schools.
It added a provision stating that charters have a financial audit that does not reveal any of the financial emergency conditions in 218.503(1) for the most recent year. On the surface, this does not sound like a transparency move.
There are some differences in provisions between the House and Senate relating to charter advisory board conflict of interest rules. The Senate bill 1552 looks stronger than the other bills. They just require board members to be identified and two meetings be held in the district. Advisory boards controlled by their management companies cannot be very independent. Details follow.