By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 30, 1998; Page B01

RICHMOND, Jan. 29—Republican legislation to create independently run charter schools funded by taxpayers easily cleared a Senate committee today and appeared headed for passage, the first major sign of the GOP's new clout in Virginia's legislature.

The bill was approved 12 to 3 by the Senate Education and Health Committee -- the same panel that killed a similar measure last year on an 8 to 7 vote along party lines.

Charter schools, which exist in 29 states and the District of Columbia, are public schools established by local districts but exempt from many district rules. Supporters say the freedom allows the schools to offer innovative programs.

For four years, Democratic lawmakers had bottled up proposals to let districts grant such charters, saying the legislation would weaken support for traditional public schools and hurt minority group members and cities.

But now, Republicans control 50 seats in the 100-member House of Delegates and have a 21 to 19 majority in the Senate.

"There's a lot of members of the Senate and House who feel, with all the shifts in public opinion from the fall, that they need to change their posture," said a downcast Sen. L. Louise Lucas (Portsmouth), one of the three Democrats who dissented in today's vote.

"One word -- enlightenment," said Sen. John H. Chichester (R-Stafford), referring to the Democrats who switched their votes to yes.

J. Scott Leake, GOP caucus spokesman, said today's outcome was a far cry from previous years, when Democratic leaders argued that charter school supporters were hard-line social conservatives seeking to tear down public education. "Their conversion is commendable," Leake said. "We've come a long way from calling school-choice proponents the same as abortion clinic bombers."

Lawmakers said they expected a House version of the bill to sail out of committee Monday, and both bills enjoy strong floor support.

Sponsored by Sen. Warren E. Barry (R-Fairfax) and Del. Phillip A. Hamilton (R-Newport News), the bills would allow each of the state's 135 school districts to grant up to two charters.

The charter schools would receive state and local funding under the same formula as other public schools. Teachers and staff members would be public school employees, and the schools would have to meet the new state performance requirements that have been imposed on all districts.

Charters schools are less likely in Northern Virginia, at least at first, supporters say, given relatively high satisfaction with the existing schools.

Legislators in both parties said this year's bills were modified to win bipartisan support. In a concession to critics who feared that the charters would be granted to home-school proponents and conservative activists lacking academic credentials, the bills give local school boards the power to revoke charters from schools with consistently poor records. Private schools cannot be converted into charter schools. And charter schools with more applicants than slots must enroll students by lottery, to prevent discrimination based on race, income or academic skill.

The legislation would make Virginia eligible for its share of $80 million in federal grants put up by President Clinton, whose support for charter schools was seized on by Republican legislators to bring Democrats into line.

The proposal's harshest critics in Virginia are civil rights groups, teachers unions and officials in poorly performing urban districts. They have compared the creation of charter schools to Virginia's initial response to court-ordered desegregation, in which whites abandoned public districts to set up private "academies." Opponents say charters schools will divert money and energy from ongoing public school reforms.

"Give me a committed teacher and 15 students to teach instead of 30, and I guarantee you success," said Melvin D. Law, chairman of the Richmond School Board, which oversees a 26,000-student system with a 42 percent passing rate on the state's sixth-grade Literacy Passport exam. "Level the playing field, and let's give help to all schools."

There are 787 charter schools nationwide, two-thirds of them in six states. They enroll about 170,000 of the nation's 52 million school-age children.