The Minnesota legislature has cleared a bill authorizing the establishment of “charter” or “outcome based” schools that would be largely independent of day-to-day school-district control.
An omnibus education bill containing the chartered-school provisions was sent to Gov. Arne Carlson last month.
Under the final provisions of the bill, a chartered school would have to be sponsored or authorized by a local school board and established by one or more licensed teachers, with the classroom teachers required to have valid licenses. An earlier version of the proposal had suggested that classroom teachers need not be licensed. (See Education Week, April 3, 1991.)
No school board could authorize more than two chartered schools, Land no more than eight could be established within the state.
The law would bar schools from charging tuition and require that they meet state health, safety, and certain other standards and be nonsectarian in admissions and not affiliated with “a religious institution.”
The chartered schools would be “exempt from all statutes and rules applicable to a school board or school district” and could be limited to one grade or focused on certain subjects, such as the fine arts, mathematics, science, or a foreign language.
A Wisconsin legislative panel has rejected Gov. Tommy G. Thompson’s “wedfare” plan to enhance welfare benefits for teenage parents who marry.
The Health and Human Services Study Group of the Joint Finance Committee turned down the proposal last month.
Mr. Thompson’s plan, apparently the first of its kind, would cap monthly welfare benefits at approximately $440 after the first child, except that a married welfare recipient under age 20 would have gotten some $80 a month more. Young parents would be required to attend parenting classes. (See Education Week, Feb. 20, 1991.)
Some observers said that the proposal was probably dead for this legislative session as a result of the panel’s action. But a spokesman for Mr. Thompson insisted last week that the proposal was still alive.
The Ohio House has passed a bill to allow officials to ban from all state public schools older stu dents who commit certain seri ous offenses.
The bill would apply to any student 16 or older found guilty in court of car rying a concealed weapon, bringing a firearm to school, selling drugs, or as saulting a school employee.
The bill would require a local school board to vote on a recommen dation that a student be excluded and then forward the matter to the state superintendent for a final decision.
