Draft Charter Bill Calls for Local Approval, More Reviewers

The outlines of a new charter school bill are taking shape, with a draft being circulated by Assembly Democrats that would add tighter controls on new charters and expand the number of organizations approving and overseeing the schools.

State Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan Jr. (D-Middlesex), chair of the Assembly’s education committee, has completed a draft that would require local voters to approve new charter schools and would add up to three “reviewers” from colleges and universities. The draft would also restructure parts of the application process for charter schools and place new requirements on them to annually report and post their enrollment breakdowns and budgets.

Diegnan said Thursday that he expected still more changes to come before the bill is formally introduced in May, but he hopes his proposals at least start building a consensus on the long-delayed update of New Jersey’s 18-year-old charter school law.

“This is clearly not the final document, but hopefully gets the discussion going,” he said yesterday, adding that his goal is for a hearing by his committee before summer.

Many of the latest provisions have been proposed before in various bills, but each has fallen short of approval in either the Assembly or the Senate or both. But Diegnan said his office has been working with that of state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), the Senate education chair who is crafting on her own bill and is considered the Senate point person on the issue.

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