SENATE DOCKET, NO. 1817        FILED ON: 1/14/2009

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 236

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act relative to charter schools..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Section 89 of Chapter 71 of the Massachusetts General Laws, as appearing in the 2002 Official Edition is hereby amended by striking out the third and fourth sentences in subsection (i) and inserting in place thereof the following three sentences:-

(i) In any fiscal year, a public school district’s total charter school tuition payment to the commonwealth charter schools shall not exceed 9 per cent of said district’s net school spending; provided, however, that a public school district’s total charter tuition payment to commonwealth charter schools may equal 20 percent of said district’s net school spending if the board determines the MCAS scores for a school district place said district in the lowest ten percent of all statewide MCAS test performance scores for two consecutive years .  The board shall not approve additional applications for any new charter schools in these designated school districts if the district’s MCAS test scores rise above the bottom ten percent of all statewide MCAS scores for any 2 consecutive years after said determination is made by the board.  The commonwealth shall incur charter school tuition payments for siblings attending commonwealth charter schools to the extent that their attendance would otherwise cause said school district’s charter tuition payments to exceed 9 percent of said school district’s net school spending.