Comment on Iowa senators advance charter school expansion

DES MOINES — Majority Senate Republicans advanced bills Tuesday to expand Iowa’s system of charter schools and to ban stereotyping in diversity training in schools, colleges and beyond as legislators worked to keep alive their pet issues with a Friday funnel deadline looming.Sen. Amy Sinclair, R-Allerton, chair of the Senate Education Committee, told a subcommittee House File 813 would allow for an expansion of charter schools as an alternative to traditional public schools that would help foster innovation, opportunities and more educational choices.The measure would allow a founding group to apply directly with the state Department of Education to form a charter school.