State Board of Education approves charters, discusses constitutional amendment at Sept. 2011 meeting

The State Board of Education met on Sept. 15-16, 2011, and aside from completing its normal business, issued eight new charters. This leaves six charter spots available under the state law that limits the number of issued charters to 215. 

In addition, the Texas Education Agency's general counsel, David Anderson, explained HJR 109 to the board. This constitutional amendment will be voted on in November and authorizes the General Land Office, which manages the Veterans' Land Fund, to directly transfer up to $300 million per year to the Available School Fund (ASF), which distributes funding to school districts. This transfer of money would be optional, not required. The constitutional amendment would also increase the amount of the investment assets used to calculate the SBOE's Permanent School Fund (PSF) payout percentage. The rate is currently set at 4.2% and the increase in assets used for calculation could mean that $73 million more than expected would be transferred from the PSF to the ASF for distribution to schools.