Rob Bishop: “I have one other issue as well. We have talked, both in committee, the Rules Committee and I'm going to bring it up here…”

“I have one other issue as well. We have talked, both in committee, the Rules Committee and I'm going to bring it up here on the floor, of the issue of charter schools. The committee has stated as their policy they wish to have charter schools treated fairly in this particular bill. If a charter school is, of itself, a local education agency, the language in this bill covers charter schools and they will be treated fairly. Unfortunately, if a charter school is part of a different local education agency it does not guarantee in the language of the bill that that charter school will be treated fairly. We have examples, anecdotal I admit, but anecdotal from coast to coast in this Nation, of charter schools who were not treated fairly by local education agencies. And unless specific language is placed in this bill, it does not guarantee that will happen. I appreciate the chairman of the committee adding new language in a manager's amendment that will try and make a study of this to see if they can report back. But the bottom line is simply this. Despite our statement that we want charter schools to be treated fairly, the language of our bill is a gaping loophole that does not meet that if the charter school is not part of the LEA, and I would hope, I would certainly hope that the chairman or the sponsors would guarantee that they would continue to work on this issue to make sure that this is given out in a fair and equitable manner because we want fairness and logic.”