Charter schools idea sent to Senate panel

Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, said flexibility is the watchword of SB258, which would allow existing public schools to convert to charter schools and allow charter school officials to negotiate their own contracts with teachers.

The bill would also establish a commission to help assist in the creation of charter schools and lower the percentage of licensed teachers required for a school from 75 percent of the staff to 50 percent.

"The main goal is to create flexibility in the current Nevada statutes," Washington said. "There are difficulties in obtaining space to open up schools, and some teachers want the flexibility and option to teach in a charter school."

The bill was referred to the Senate Finance Committee for a hearing.

Washington was one of several lawmakers involved in getting Nevada's first charter school law passed in 1997. Since then, only one school, the I Can Do Anything charter high school in Reno, has opened.

The 1997 bill creating Nevada's charter school law did not allow for the conversion of public schools to charter schools, and required the schools to follow local school district collective bargaining agreements.

That bill was amended heavily by the Assembly Education Committee and its chairman, Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas.

Williams said Thursday that Washington had forwarded a copy of SB258 to him for review.

While the idea of converting entire schools into charter schools is an idea worth discussing, Williams said he doubts if there is any appetite in the Assembly to do away with the requirement that the schools follow the rules and pay levels set in local bargaining agreements.

Williams said he doesn't like the idea of allowing a charter school to be established on a public school campus and to co-exist with the public school.

"But the entire transformation of a public school to a charter is worthy of discussion," he said.

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