AGO 2002-02.
Case Date | March 07, 2002 |
Court | Indiana |
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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