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Sponsor, Fiscal Staff Say HB28’s Charter‑District Cost Estimate Likely Overstated
Summary
Representative David Beattie and fiscal witnesses told the Senate Finance and Claims Committee the revised fiscal note for House Bill 28 mistakenly listed a local taxpayer impact and that the bill’s FY27 cost assumption (one new independent charter district) likely overestimates state costs.
Representative David Beattie opened House Bill 28 by clarifying that Montana law provides for two charter models: charters within existing school districts and stand‑alone public charter school districts. He told the committee there are currently no independent public charter school districts and that the fiscal note assumes one approved district in the next review cycle — an assumption he called an overestimate. He said a mistaken line in the revised fiscal note implied a local taxpayer impact but that "there is 0 impact on local taxpayers" because independent public charter districts would be 100% state funded.
McCall Flynn, executive director of the Board of Public Education, confirmed the board has not approved any new independent charter school districts in the past two years and explained the fiscal note’s assumption of one new district. Rob Watson (School Administrators/Coalition of Advocates for Montana’s Public Schools) told the committee the FY27 enrollment numbers in assumption 11 (71 elementary, 21 middle, 41 high school students) and the resulting a+b calculation (roughly $854,000) likely overstate near‑term costs because new charter districts typically open with a limited set of grades and grow over time.
The committee heard from Paul Taylor (OPI) as an informational witness. After discussion the committee moved to concur with House Bill 28; members adopted concurrence by voice vote and the bill was returned with the committee recommendation.
