SB 964

Under current law, a school board, the Office of Educational Opportunity in the

UW System, the City of Milwaukee, the chancellor of an institution in the UW

System, a technical college district board, the county executive of Waukesha County,

the college of Menominee Nation, and the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa community

college may contract with a person to operate a charter school. Those entities are

commonly referred to as charter school authorizers, and a charter school established

by a charter school authorizer other than a school board is known as an independent

charter school.

This bill creates the Charter School Authorizing Board, attached to the

Department of Public Instruction, and expands the entities that may establish

independent charter schools to include the CSAB.

The CSAB consists of the state superintendent of public instruction, two

members appointed by the state superintendent, two members appointed by the

governor, and six members, who are not legislators, appointed by the leaders in the

senate and assembly. The bill specifies that no appointed member of the CSAB may

serve more than two consecutive terms. The bill prohibits the CSAB from

promulgating rules and provides that any standard or statement of policy adopted

by the CSAB is exempt from the rule-making process.