A bill from Sen. Todd Gardenhire that would let for-profit companies run and manage public charter schools failed to make the grade in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday, reports the Chattanooga TFP.
The bill failed, getting just two votes, including the Chattanooga Republican lawmaker’s own vote, while one colleague said no and three others abstained.
Gardenhire earlier told the panel the bill is intended to help charter schools, which are run by nonprofit groups but funded with tax dollars. Often, they are started by parents, teachers, churches or other groups.
“As you all know, when the charter school starts up, the hardest year is the first year and sometimes it’s not easy to get competent administrators or people who know how to do the mechanics of starting a school,” Gardenhire explained. “This would allow well-meaning people who set up a charter school to go outside and hire people to manage it. That’s not to say everybody’s not competent.”
While charter schools can contract out some services like cleaning or food service to for-profit vendors, they currently are not allowed to contract out management services to them.