Date: 04/23/2012

Final
BILL SUMMARY for SB12-121

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

Votes: View--> Action Taken:
Refer Senate Bill 12-121 to the House Committee ofPASS



02:53 PM -- Senate Bill 12-121

Representative Massey, Chair, called the meeting to order and handed it over to Representative Beezley, Vice-Chair, so that Representative Massey could present his bill.

Representative Massey, sponsor of Senate Bill 12-121, presented the bill. The bill, as amended by the Senate Education Committee, makes multiple changes to state law concerning charter schools.

Charter school capital construction. Under the Building Excellent Schools Today Act (BEST), recipients of public school capital construction grants must pay a portion of the cost of the funded project, unless a waiver is granted. The Public School Capital Construction Assistance Board (BEST board) makes recommendations to the State Board of Education concerning construction grants to public schools, including determining the amount of matching funds the recipient must contribute. Matching funds are calculated as a percentage of a construction project's total cost. With respect to charter schools, Senate Bill 12-121:

• changes the factors the BEST board considers when determining the financial capacity of charter schools to provide matching funds;
• specifies that the match percentage for a charter school must be between the highest and lowest match percentage for a school district in the same grant cycle;
• creates a charter school matching funds loan program in the Department of Treasury; and
• exempts the amount of the loans from the new loan program from the calculation of the total amount of annual lease purchase payments permitted in a fiscal year.

The bill also requires that a charter school notify its authorizer of an application to the BEST board one month earlier then currently required.

Charter school matching moneys. The bill creates the Charter School Matching Moneys Loan Program to assist eligible charter schools in obtaining the matching moneys required for financial assistance from the state. The BEST board must adopt rules for the application process, and may approve a loan of up to 50 percent of the amount of the required match. If approved, the BEST board directs the state treasurer to include the amount of the loan in the lease-purchase agreement for the project, thus incorporating the loan amount and interest into the payment of the lease-purchase certificates of participation, except that the charter school may pay the full amount of the loan anytime without incurring a prepayment penalty.

State and federal grants. Under current law, the state Charter School Institute (CSI), in the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), may act as the local education agency (LEA) and fiscal agent for district charter schools or institute charter schools that apply for non-formulaic, competitive state and federal grants (i.e., grants for which an application is made and evaluated in competition with other LEAs). The CSI is currently allowed to act as the fiscal agent for grants awarded to charter schools. This bill specifies that either a charter school or a consortium of charter schools may use the CSI as the LEA and fiscal agent for the purposes of grant management and liability.

CSI authorizing authority. Under current law, the CSI may only authorize charter schools where the local school district does not retain exclusive chartering authority. This bill allows the CSI to charter a school in any school district, if that district has been identified under state accountability laws as accredited with a turnaround plan; the lowest school district accreditation category assigned by the CDE. The CSI maintains the charter even if the district attains a higher accreditation level in the future.

State Charter School Institute Fund. The bill continuously appropriates all moneys in the CSI fund. The CSI is directed to create an account in the fund to pay the institute's administrative costs. The account may only consist of moneys retained by the CSI from the institute charter schools' adjusted per-pupil revenues and per-pupil on-line funding. At the end of each budget year, if the remaining balance in the account exceeds 10 percent of total adjusted per-pupil funding, the CSI must refund the excess to institute charter schools on a per-pupil basis.

The following person testified:

02:56 PM -- Vinny Badolato, representing the Colorado League of Charter Schools (CLCS), testified in support of the bill. Mr. Badolato stated that the bill is primarily a clean-up bill that addresses the BEST program as it relates to charter schools. Mr. Badolato responded to questions from the committee.
BILL:SB12-121
TIME: 03:00:48 PM
MOVED:Massey
MOTION:Refer Senate Bill 12-121 to the House Committee of the Whole. The motion passed on a roll call vote of 13-0.
SECONDED:Peniston
VOTE
Court
Yes
Hamner
Yes
Holbert
Yes
Joshi
Yes
Kerr A.
Yes
Murray
Yes
Peniston
Yes
Ramirez
Yes
Solano
Yes
Summers
Yes
Todd
Yes
Beezley
Yes
Massey
Yes
Final YES: 13 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: PASS