An Act Related to Public Funding of Charter Schools
Maine Legislature, Session 126, LD 1057
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
Sponsors: KUSIAK

Legislative Document 
No. 1057 
H.P. 750 
House of Representatives, March 19, 2013 
An Act Related to Public Funding of Charter Schools 
Reference to the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs suggested and ordered 
printed. 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Presented by Representative KUSIAK of Fairfield. 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
CONCEPT DRAFT 
SUMMARY 
This bill is a concept draft pursuant to Joint Rule 208. 
This bill proposes to amend several funding requirements for public charter schools 
established in the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 20-A, chapter 112.  The bill proposes 
that: 
1.  The Department of Education establish a new program budget account for funding 
the operation of public charter schools.  Under current law, local school administrative 
units must provide funding for students who reside within the school administrative unit 
but who enroll in a public charter school.  This bill proposes to require that the 
Commissioner of Education recommend an annual amount of state funding for students 
enrolled in public charter schools, but that funding that supports student enrollment or the 
operation of public charter schools may not come from state or local resources allocated 
through the General Purpose Aid for Local Schools program; 
2.  The amount of state funding provided by the Department of Education for a 
student enrolled in a public charter school may not exceed the combined level of federal, 
state and local per-pupil funding that would have been provided for the student had the 
student remained in attendance in the student's local school.  Public charter schools may 
not discriminate among potential students who wish to attend the school based upon the 
combined level of federal, state and local per-pupil funding that would follow the student 
from the student's sending school administrative unit; 
3.  Virtual public charter schools may not receive state or local funding, except that 
state and local resources allocated through the General Purpose Aid for Local Schools 
program must be provided by the sending school administrative unit to the virtual public 
charter school for a student who experiences education disruption as defined in the Maine 
Revised Statutes, Title 20-A, section 5161, subsection 9 and who enrolls in a virtual 
public charter school; and 
4.  School administrative units not be responsible for the transportation costs for a 
student who resides within the school administrative unit but who enrolls in a public 
charter school, and school administrative units not be responsible for providing 
transportation for students who are enrolled in a public charter school and who also attend 
a career and technical education program that is supported by public funds raised by the 
school administrative unit.  Public charter school students may access transportation to 
the career and technical education program only from a noncharter public secondary 
school or another location where career and technical education students gather to access 
transportation to the career and technical education program.