House panel approves charter school alternative

Molly Parker • mparker2@jackson.gannett.com • March 3, 2010

The House Education Committee on Tuesday passed an education reform bill that gives parents the ability to create other schools if the ones their children attend are deemed failing or at risk of failing for three years.

House Education Chairman Cecil Brown introduced the measure — named the “Innovative School Act of 2010” — as an alternative to the charter school legislation that the Senate passed earlier this session.

“All references to charter schools have been taken out of this bill,” said Brown, D-Jackson.

The measure was one of dozens that moved another step in the legislative process Tuesday — the deadline for committees to advance legislation to the floor in what remains in the last month of the regular session.

Several measures are dead, including a bill that would have made it a felony to torture or maim cats or dogs and a bill that would have banned people of all ages from sending text messages while driving.

Charter schools operate in nearly every state, but Mississippi lawmakers have been reluctant to open the door to the concept in recent years. A narrow charter school law was on the books until July, but lawmakers let it expire.

The Senate has passed a bill that would allow certain nonsecular groups to petition the state Department of Education to form an open enrollment charter school.
Brown said his goal was to craft legislation the House might go along with. The two chambers would have to reconcile their significant differences on Senate Bill 2293 before it goes to the governor.

The Department of Education recently tagged more than 200 schools as failing or at risk of failing under its new grading system. The House legislation, if passed, would allow parents of children in up to 12 of those schools to petition for innovative school status in the next six years.

Superintendent of Education Tom Burnham said the idea is to shift decision-making back to parents while retaining the school structure.

The school’s governing body would be made up of five board members, all of whom would have to be parents with children enrolled in the school they are overseeing.
The measure passed out of committee by 14-10 vote.

The House Education Committee on Tuesday passed an education reform bill that gives parents the ability to create other schools if the ones their children attend are deemed failing or at risk of failing for three years.

A former high school teacher, Rep. Jimmy Puckett, D-Amory, said educators are tired of experiments. Puckett said he often was subjected to the whims of “gurus” during his 29 years in the classroom.

“I was frustrated out of my mind,” he said.

The busy day for lawmakers and lobbyists was, at times, emotional for spectators.
Kim Wolford, a Jackson resident, walked up and down the hallway Tuesday morning attempting to find out whether the House Agriculture Committee planned to meet and call the animal cruelty bill for a vote. Wolford said later that she was “very disappointed” lawmakers let it die.

The committee was not scheduled to meet.

“This bill is about saving the lives of women and children,” Wolford said.

She said people who hurt animals are likely to hurt children, too.

Also, the family and friends of a 5-year-old Laurel boy who died last year in a traffic accident gathered in the Capitol with little Nathan Key’s picture on posters to lobby for comprehensive school bus safety legislation.

Nathan was killed by a car as he exited the bus. The bill survived deadline, but the House stripped some penalties from the bill.

“I’m actually hoping this will go into conference and they will put some of the regulations back in,” said Lori Key, Nathan’s mother.

House Judiciary A Committee Chairman Ed Blackmon, D-Canton, said drivers who hit children near school buses already are subject to aggravated assault charges, which carry stiffer penalties than the new law would provide.

The Senate version of the bill — dubbed Nathan’s Law — provided for a five-year prison sentence for someone convicted of injuring a child while passing a school bus. Under current law, a person charged with aggravated assault faces up to 20 years.
“The committee didn’t see the logic in reducing that penalty,” Blackmon said.
The House version increased penalties for passing school buses without hitting children, as well.

A first offense would carry a $750 fine or a year in jail. A second offense would be a $1,500 fine or a year in jail, as well as a 90-day license suspension.

“I believe subjecting someone to a year of jail for passing a school bus and not hitting anybody is a substantial deterrent,” Blackmon said.

Judiciary A also passed a watered-down version of a bill aimed to strengthen the state Open Meetings Act.

The Senate version of Senate Bill 2373 would have given authority to the Chancery Court system, in addition to the state Ethics Commission, which handles open meetings complaints today.

Blackmon said his committee believed it was a duplication of enforcement to add the chancery system.The committee also did not agree with provisions to automatically force violators to pay for attorney fees.

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