AGO 2002-02.

Case DateMarch 07, 2002
CourtIndiana
Indiana Attorney General Opinions 2002. AGO 2002-02. March 7, 2002Advisory Opinion 2002-2Dr. Suellen Reed State Superintendent of Public Instruction Room 229 State House Indianapolis, IN RE: Funding for Charter Schools Dear Dr. Reed: During its 2001 session, the Indiana General Assembly passed the Charter School Act, now codified at Ind. Code § 20-5.5, et. seq. (the Act). The Act provides for the creation of charter schools, which are defined as public elementary school[s] or secondary school[s] established under this chapter. Ind. Code § 20-5.5-1-4 (emphasis added). In the Act the Legislature provided an alternative to traditional public schools, and authorized charter schools to provide: innovative and autonomous programs that do the following: (1) Serve the different learning styles and needs of public school students. (2) Offer public school students appropriate and innovative choices. (3) Afford varied opportunities for professional educators. (4) Allow public schools freedom and flexibility in exchange for exceptional levels of accountability. (5) Provide parents, students, community members, and local entities with an expanded opportunity for involvement in the public school system. Ind. Code § 20-5.5-2-1. The Department of Education (the Department) will be required by Ind. Code § 20-5.5-7-3 to distribute state tuition support for charter schools. An issue has arisen as to whenthe initial distribution of these funds[1] to charter schools must be made by the Department. In your letter dated February 14, 2002, requesting a legal opinion, you provided us with the Departments interpretation based on its reading of the Act and the Budget Bill, P.L. 291-2001 4. The Department believes that (i) it is prohibited by statute from making any distribution of state tuition support to charter schools earlier than January 2003, and (ii) it has no authority to reduce payments to which traditional public school corporations are entitled to receive (during the first semester of a school year) for the purpose of providing tuition support to charter schools. Brief Answer It is my legal opinion that the General Assembly has created dual obligations that the Department must fulfill. It cannot be assumed that the General Assembly intended to have the new public schools operate without state tuition funds absent clear language to that effect in the Charter School Act. Therefore, the Department of Education is required both to distribute tuition support and other state funding upon verification of the required information from the charter school organizer andto make full state tuition payments to public school corporations. Analysis The importance of the issue presented is one that is set within our Indiana Constitution, which states: Knowledge and learning, generally diffused throughout a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government; it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to encourage, by all suitable means, moral, intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement; and to provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of Common Schools[2], wherein tuition shall be...

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