FISCAL NOTE

House Bill 487 as introduced could increase the obligations of the Alabama Public Charter School Commission by an undetermined amount dependent on the compensation set by the commission for non-merit staff pursuant to this bill. These obligations could be offset, wholly or in part, by the collection of authorizer oversight fees by the commission, as provided by this bill, estimated to be $208,000 annually, based on Fiscal Year 2020 data. The Governor's Recommended Education Trust Fund (ETF) appropriation bill for Fiscal Year 2022 proposed an appropriation of $400,000 for the State Charter School Commission.

Further, this bill (1) provides, during startup and structured growth years, start-up public charter schools shall be funded in the same manner as a newly formed non-charter public school and (2) eliminates the current provision of providing initial-year funding for startup public charter schools from the current units funding appropriated to the Foundation Program from the ETF.

Further, this bill provides that Foundation Program funding for a start-up charter school shall include anticipated enrollment as provided in the approved charter application, with the resulting Foundation Program allocation being adjusted to reconcile the variance between anticipated and actual funded enrollment, which is current practice by the State Department of Education.

Further, this bill requires public charter schools to participate in other Education Trust Fund and Public School Fund appropriations in the same manner as other non-charter public schools, which would increase receipts to public charter schools by an undetermined amount.

Further, this bill provides for local tax revenues to be received by a public charter school from the non-charter school system dependent upon if the charter school student resides within or outside the county where the public charter school is located. This bill caps the amount of per student share of net local tax revenue at the amount of such local revenue received by the school system in which the public charter school is located. These provisions could increase local tax revenue receipts to public charter schools by an undetermined amount dependent upon the difference in the amount of local tax revenues currently received by a public charter school and the local tax revenues received pursuant to this bill.

Further, this bill requires the Department to forward state and local funds to public charter schools on a monthly basis, rather than quarterly as provided by current law.

Finally, this bill requires the Department to annually determine the budgeted local revenue allocations for each public charter school before the deadline to submit applications to the commission or registered local authorizer, which could increase the administrative obligations of the Department.