Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 3, 1995                   TAG: 9502030081
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

CHARTER SCHOOL BILL GETS SUSPENDED FOR 1 YEAR

The Senate Education and Health Committee voted to refer the proposal to a one-year study, mirroring action taken last week by the House of Delegates.

``The concept was not rejected, so I'm encouraged by that,'' said Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, who sponsored the charter school bill for Gov. George Allen and made it a personal mission for this year's assembly.

``As far as the details and how the charter schools would operate, some members didn't feel comfortable,'' Bell said. ``But a movement is still about. It's just going to take time.''

Bell said he expects that Thursday's action also shelved plans to adopt a pilot charter school program in Portsmouth. Officials there had considered using the city as a test site, but Bell said he thinks that would require legislation.

When charter school legislation first was introduced, it sparked a mini-firestorm that some thought would last through the General Assembly session. If approved, the plan would have allowed local school districts to set up schools independent of local school boards.

Five delegates and four senators will be appointed to study charter schools, and Bell said he will request a seat on the panel.

``With all the talk about outcome-based education, which is very much a top-down approach, what interested me so much was that this was a bottom-up way of looking at education,'' Bell said.

``A month or two ago, there was a great deal of skepticism. Now, I think there's a general feeling that there's some merit to the concept.''

The Senate committee also blocked a perennial bill to require teen-age girls to notify their parents before they get an abortion.

Education and Health members voted 8-7 not to send a pair of parental notification bills to the full Senate.

Sen. Mark Earley, R-Chesapeake, a sponsor of one of the bills, argued that the measure is especially important this year because of recent violence at abortion clinics.

``Given that, it's all the more important that the parents of minor daughters be notified that their daughters will be in those kinds of clinics,'' Earley testified at a brief hearing Thursday.

Opponents of the bill argued that a parental notification requirement would force teen-agers to go to surrounding states for abortions, and that some abusive parents might react violently.

``I don't think any teen-ager's relationship with their mother is strong enough to talk about these kinds of personal things,'' testified a 17-year-old girl who did not give her name.

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995