Senate Sponsors: O'MALLEY-LAUZEN-OBAMA-CRONIN-WALSH,T AND PARKER. House Sponsors: SCHOENBERG-ERWIN-TURNER,ART-KLINGLER-MOORE Short description: SCH CD-NEW CHARTER SCHOOLS Synopsis of Bill as introduced: Amends the Charter Schools Law of the School Code. Removes the limit on the number of charter schools that may operate at any one time in the City of Chicago. Requires the State Board of Education to provide information to persons and groups preparing or revising charter applications that clearly details the process, timelines, and criteria used to prepare and revise charter applications; allows other information, such as links to external resource organizations, to also be provided. Provides that a grant or loan from the Board for start-up costs may not exceed $500 (instead of $250) per student enrolled in the charter school. SENATE AMENDMENT NO. 1. Deletes reference to: 105 ILCS 5/27A-4 Adds reference to: 105 ILCS 5/34-49 from Ch. 122, par. 34-49 Deletes everything after the enacting clause. Reinserts the contents of the bill with the following changes. Restores current law concerning the limit on the number of charter schools that may operate at any one time in the City of Chicago. Allows a charter school to (i) borrow money without regard to any referendum requirements, (ii) issue bonds, notes, and other obligations, and (iii) secure any of its obligations by pledge, mortgage, or deed on its property. Allows the governing body of a charter school to pledge, as security for the payment of its obligations, grants, other revenues, gifts, or donations expected to be received by the charter school from certain sources. Allows a school board to guarantee the repayment or otherwise enhance the credit of the debt obligations of a charter school. Makes changes concerning State financing. FISCAL NOTE, S-AM 1 (State Board of Education) The costs will be approximately $5-6 million increase over the proposed $10 million for the Charter School Grant (transition impact aid, no additional cost; start-up grants, $5-6 million increase due to the start-up grants increasing from up to $250 per enrollee to a flat $1,000). These costs are based on pro- posed charter school enrollments for 2001-2002 school year under current legislation. (Note: SB 78 has Chicago increasing from 15 to 30 charters.) The out-year costs will also increase since the start-up costs go every year regardless of the char- ter's length. FISCAL NOTE, S-AM 2 (State Board of Education) Same as previous note. SENATE AMENDMENT NO. 2. Provides that the grants to charter schools for certain costs shall not exceed $1,000 per student enrolled in the charter school (instead of requiring the grants to be in the amount of $1,000 per student enrolled in the charter school). Last action on Bill: SESSION SINE DIE Last action date: JAN-07-2003 Location: Senate Amendments to Bill: AMENDMENTS ADOPTED: HOUSE - 0 SENATE - 2 END OF INQUIRY Full Text Bill Status