For-profit charter school bill clears House committee:

For-profit charter school bill clears House committee

For-profit companies moved closer to being able to operate charter schools in Tennessee after a much-debated bill eked out a key legislative victory Tuesday.

The House Education Committee voted 8-7 to advance to the House floor House Bill 1693, which would let nonprofit charter schools hire companies that bring in profits for management.

With its companion Senate bill clearing committee last month, both full chambers are now on track to consider the legislation.

A combination of Democrats and Republicans questioned Tuesday why for-profit companies would be needed in a state where many nonprofit charter schools are flourishing. But the bill’s sponsor, Rep. John DeBerry, a Democrat from Memphis, the state’s biggest hotbed of privately run, publicly funded charters, argued that the measure would simply give charters the ability to contract vendors the same way local school districts can.

“They can’t make a profit if they run a sloppy operation,” DeBerry said before accusing critics of the legislation of basing claims on “false facts” and “untruths.”

He repeatedly stressed that only nonprofit boards of directors would still be able to gain approval to open charter schools. He later reflected on an ongoing debate since