A bill that has been worked on throughout this year’s Iowa Legislative session is now on the governor’s desk.

House File 813 allows for charter schools to be established by a founding group applying directly to the Iowa Department of Education. The Senate passed the bill while also retaining the current option of going through an existing public school board. District 24 Senator Jesse Green says the bill gives parents and current schools another option to achieve their educational goals.

Green notes that the legislation also improves the current process for charters to be established already, and they don’t take public funding away from existing public schools.

“I know that the vast majority of the (charter) schools are going to be branches of existing public schools and that those dollars will be controlled by the school board that’s already in existence.”

Green doesn’t believe there will be many charter schools that are created if the bill is signed into law. Click the link below to see the full House bill.

https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=HF813