South Carolina Eyes State Charter District

Legislators seek to work out differences in bills passed in both chambers.

South Carolina appears on track to enact legislation that would create both a statewide authorizer for charter schools and a new statewide district exclusively for those schools.

The measure stems from concerns that local school districts have not always been welcoming—and sometimes are hostile—to the largely autonomous public schools.

If the measure becomes law, South Carolina will join a small list of states with statewide authorizing bodies, and will be only the second to have a statewide charter district, according to Todd M. Ziebarth, a policy analyst at the Washington-based National Alliance...