Charter School Legislation:
A Heartening Show of Bipartisan Support

        By October 1998, 33 states and the District of Columbia passed charter school legislation. Although such legislation has sparked intense debate in some of these states, and has been unsuccessful in at least three state efforts over the past year, four states did pass laws in 1998 (at least 2 of which should lead to meaningful charter activity), and two (Florida and California), significantly improved their existing laws. Overall the charter school concept has received remarkably bipartisan support, particularly in states with stronger charter laws.

        As the table below shows, the parties in control in state Houses and Senates during the passage of the initial law in the stronger charter laws states were nearly even between Democrats and Republicans, with Republicans representing a slightly higher percentage; among the governors who have signed such bills into law, 19 were Republican, and 15 were Democrats. Interestingly more Democrats have been at the helm when weak charter school bills were passed and signed into law.

For more details on the ranking of each state's charter law, visit the complete State-by-State Ranking of Charter School Laws.

To see each state's individual charter law profile, just click on the state's name below:
Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

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